The worldwide fleet of more than 1,000 Pilatus PC-12 turboprop singles has now logged more than 10 million flight hours, Pilatus Aircraft said yesterday. The Swiss manufacturer also announced this week that it is increasing production rates as it closes in on its 2,000th PC-12 delivery; the milestone aircraft will be a PC-12 NGX, representing the third major variant of the type that first entered service in 1994.
The fleet-leader PC-12 is based in Canada and has logged more than 35,000 hours, while 71 other of the turboprop singles have each flown more than 20,000 hours. The global fleet has made more than 9.3 million landings, with four aircraft alone reporting more than 50,000 landings each.
“When the PC-12 was launched, this milestone seemed light-years away in the future,” said Pilatus business aviation division v-p Ignaz Gretener. “You must give credit to the engineers who designed this robust airframe, the production team that builds outstanding quality into each unit, the sales team that found so many markets eager to adopt this versatile aircraft, and the support team keeping them in the air.”
Over the past three decades, Pilatus has increased the power of the PC-12’s PT6 engine, as well as its speed, gross weight, and payload capacity. In 2019, it became the first business turboprop to incorporate Pratt & Whitney Canada’s electronic propeller and engine control system.