Story ID: 462Pilatus4M
Pilatus PC-12 Fleet Logs Four Million Hours
By: Chad Trautvetter
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Word Count: 170
The global fleet of nearly 1,200 Pilatus PC-12s reached a major milestone this month by accumulating four million flight hours since the first copy of the turboprop single was delivered in October 1994. According to Stans, Switzerland-based Pilatus, the highest time PC-12 has logged more than 24,000 hours in operation as an air ambulance with Air Bravo in Ontario, Canada.

“We are delighted and proud to reach this momentous occasion in the history of the PC-12 program. To those of us who have been with the PC-12 since its inception, four million hours seemed to be an event our successors would experience,” said Pilatus general aviation vice president Ignaz Gretener. “Today, the PC-12 fleet adds one million flight hours every two years.”

As part of the celebration this year, Pilatus’s design team outfitted a demo PC-12 NG with an Otto Lilienthal-themed paint job, graced with carefully applied “tailfeathers” painted on the PC-12 NG’s empennage. The Lilienthal PC-12 NG is on static display at EBACE.