At a ceremony on Aug 1, also Swiss National Day, Pilatus officially rolled out its first jet engine powered aircraft-the PC-24 business jet ...
The ceremony which also celebrated Pilatus's 75th anniversary, was held at the Buochs airfield, adjacent to its Stans assembly line.
A team of 24 horses, symbolising the number 24 and its mission profile as a 'workhorse', pulled the first PC-24 prototype out of the production halls.
The rollout was preceded by a fly past consisting all the series produced aircraft by Pilatus.
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| © Pilatus Aircraft Ltd |
The PC-24 marks Pilatus’s first foray into the business jet market. The jet will have a range of 3,300 km (2,051 mi) with six passengers and a cruise speed of 786 km/h (488 mph).
PC-24 has the capability to operate from very short runways or even unmade strips, giving access to over 21,000 airports that other jets cannot use, according to Pilatus.
A total of three prototypes will be produced for the test flight program. The maiden flight of the first prototype is scheduled for March 2015.
Certification and intial deliveries to customers are targeted from 2017. The aircraft will be certifiedfor single pilot operation. It will compete with Embraer's Phenom 300 and Cessna's Citation CJ4 business jets.
It is powered by two tail-mounted Williams FJ44-4A turbofan engines, with each delivering a 15 kN (3,400 lbf) thrust.
Pilatus has already secured an impressive 84 orders for PC-24s at the 2014 European Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (EBACE) in May, following which bookings were suspended.
Pilatus said all PC-24s to be deliveried from 2017 to the end of 2019 has been sold out.
