Pilatus launch the PC-24 twin-jet

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The Pilatus PC-24 will be able to land on almost any type of surface.

Pilatus Aircraft enters into the business jet market with surprise launch of the PC-24 at EBACE 2013.
The Pilatus PC-24 will be able to land on almost any type of surface.

The Pilatus PC-24 will be able to land on almost any type of surface.

Pilatus Aircraft announced the launch of a new jet, the PC-24, at EBACE in Geneva.

Oscar J. Schwenk, chairman of the board of directors of Pilatus, remembers: “Over ten years ago, we started asking our PC-12 customers what they would like to see in the next Pilatus aircraft. The answers were always the same: Further and faster – whilst retaining the much appreciated strengths of the PC-12, such as the ability to use very short runways. It was a huge challenge for our development team! We are all the more proud to be able to unveil an aircraft with exactly those qualities today: the PC-24.”

The PC-24 will carry 6 – 8 passengers in an executive layout or commuter layout carrying up to 10 passengers. The company also will offer the aircraft as a medical transport air ambulance.

The aircraft reaches a maximum speed of ~425 knots (787 km/h). The maximum range with 4 passengers is 3,610 km. The PC-24 is powered by two Williams FJ44-4A turbines, each of which produces 15,124 kN of thrust.

The avionics system draws on a completely new Pilatus concept: the “Advanced Cockpit Environment” (ACE) system, developed especially to reduce cockpit workloads. Even in the basic version, the “Pilatus ACE” offers four 12-inch screens, the SmartView™ synthetic vision system, TCAS II, IRS, LVP and the option to complete flight planning procedures on the screen itself, in graphical form.

Pilatus are working on the prototype in Stans and the roll-out of the first aircraft is scheduled in the third quarter 2014, with maiden flight by the end of 2014.

Certification by the European (EASA) and American (FAA) authorities is planned for early 2017 and the first aircraft will be delivered immediately thereafter.

Schwenk has no doubt that the PC-24 will be just as successful as the PC-12, of which over 1200 models have been sold to date: “Very importantly, the PC-24 is a completely new development – not a ‘me too product’. Specifically, there is no other business jet on the market with the same credentials and qualities as our new jet. Once again, we aim to fill a market niche and I am confident we will do so successfully.”

“I am proud that we are able to develop such complex aircraft for the worldwide market here in Switzerland. I am sure our future customers will be every bit as enthusiastic as I am about the PC-24 ­– the world’s first ‘Super Versatile Jet‘!” Schwenk concluded..

The list price (price basis 2017) is approx. $8.9 million. First orders will be taken at EBACE 2014.

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