Hartzell Propeller congratulates our longtime partner, Pilatus Aircraft, on the company’s milestone delivery of the 2,000th aircraft in its popular PC-12 family. The turboprop single was handed over to longstanding U.S. PC-12 customer, PlaneSense®, during a ceremony at Pilatus’ headquarters in Stans, Switzerland.
Since its introduction in 1994, the PC-12 has been continuously upgraded to improve performance, efficiency, and reliability. Year after year, the legendary PC-12 remains the world’s best-selling single-engine turboprop in its class with a pressurized cabin.
In 2015, Hartzell Propeller introduced a five-blade composite swept tip prop specially designed to maximize cruise, climb, and takeoff performance for the Pilatus PC-12 turboprop fleet. The propeller’s highly swept airfoil was engineered to reduce flyover and cabin noise, with durable blades certified for unlimited life. Due to its excellent performance and reliability, Pilatus selected the 5-blade propeller as standard equipment on new production aircraft, and the prop is also available to legacy PC-12 operators through Hartzell’s Top Prop Propeller Conversion program.
“Hartzell Propeller is proud to be a trusted partner of Pilatus Aircraft, known around the world for its versatile, state-of-the-art aircraft,” said JJ Frigge, President of Hartzell Propeller. “We share their same commitment to innovation, quality, and safety, with a focus on developing exceptional products tailored to customer needs.”
Statistically, there are over 70 PC-12s in the air at any given time, used for business travel, transport operations, medevac and emergency missions, and search and rescue flights. In 2022 alone, Pilatus produced 80 PC-12s, and the global fleet has already amassed over ten million hours in the air.
Header image: © Pilatus Aircraft Ltd.; Handover of the 2,000th PC-12