Pilatus has announced that its fleet of military training aircraft recently achieved a major milestone by racking up more than three million flying hours, as the company seeks to secure Australia’s pilot training system competition.
“Whether it is the PC-6 of the Snowy Mountains Authority, the PC-12 that allows the Royal Flying Doctor Service to save lives on a daily basis or the PC-9 that has been the mainstay of RAAF basic pilot training, Pilatus has been involved at all levels of Australian aviation for nearly 50 years,” said Pilatus chief executive officer Markus Bucher.
The PC-21, which is the latest training aircraft to join the Pilatus fleet, is operated by Switzerland, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. The company said in a statement that additional aircraft, simulators, ground-based training equipment and services are currently being delivered for Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Pilatus jointly launched a bid with Lockheed Martin Australia, supported by Hawker Pacific, to provide the new Australian pilot training system under the project known as AIR 5428.
