december 1939 headquarters stans switzerland area served worldwide key people markus bucher ceo oscar j. schwenk chairman products fixed wing aircraft number of employees 1905 june 2016 website www.pilatus aircraft.com pilatus aircraft ltd. is an aircraft manufacturer located in stans switzerland . in june 2016 the company employed 1 905 people . 1 contents 1 history 2 aircraft 3 locations 4 references 5 external links history edit the pc 6 porter was pilatus first aircraft to achieve widespread international success . a royal malaysian air force pilatus pc 7 mk2 the company was established on 10 december 1939 by the armament company oerlikon b hrle and construction of a new production building started in march 1940 . the company was formed to do maintenance and repairs for the swiss air force the first work of the new company was assembly of ekw c 35 reconnaissance biplanes from spare parts and overhaul work on other types . 2 the first design project was a single seat trainer designated the p 1 although it was abandoned before being built . 2 the next project was the construction of the sb 2 pelican which had been designed by the swiss federal institute of technology . 2 the sb 2 first flew on 30 may 1944 only one of the five seat light transports were built . 2 in 1942 the company won a contract from the swiss military to modify 33 ekw c 3603 . 2 following on from the abandoned p 1 design the company started again on the development of a two seat trainer designated the p 2 . 2 the p 2 first flew on 27 april 1945 and the company won an order for the swiss air force . 2 during 1945 the company produced a prototype single engined light transport designated the p 4 the p 4 first flew on 22 march 1948 but only one was built . 2 during the late 1940s the company produced a number of wooden glider designs and went on to produce fuselages and tail booms for the licence produced de havilland vampire and venom . 2 in 1951 the company worked on the p 5 a design project for an artillery observation aircraft ; it was not built . 2 with production of the p 3 for the swiss air force in progress the company achieved its first export order for six p 3s for the brazilian navy . 2 in 1958 design work started on a short takeoff and landing stol light civil transport aircraft this emerged as the pc 6 porter which first flew on 4 may 1959 . 2 in 1965 a twin engined variant of the pc 6 was built as the pc 8 twin porter although it first flew on 15 november 1967 it remained an experimental and one off type and development was stopped in 1972 . 2 another project for the pc 10 16 passenger twin engined transport was started but was not built . 2 in a departure from the production of trainers and porters the company bought the rights to the all metal b 4 glider pilatus re designed the b 4 for easier production and redesignated at the b 4 pc 11 . 2 the pc 11 first flew on 5 may 1972 and the company went on to build 322 . citation needed in 1966 a turboprop powered variant of the p 3 was flown and was designated the pc 7 . 2 the aircraft crashed and development was put on hold until the 1970s . 2 in 1975 a further prototype was flown and after further development it was marketed as the pc 7 turbo trainer . 2 in 1979 pilatus acquired britten norman constructor of the britten norman islander and britten norman defender aircraft . 2 in 1982 development of an improved variant of the pc 7 was started it emerged as the pilatus pc 9 in 1984 . 2 development of what was to become the company s best selling type the pilatus pc 12 was started in 1987 a single engined turboprop transport that could carry up to twelve passengers or freight . 2 the prototype pc 12 was flown on 31 may 1991 . 2 the first pc 12 eagle surveillance aircraft was built in 1995 further developments led to the pc 12 spectre and in recent years adoption of the pc 12 by the usaf as the u 28a . tsa transairco sa of geneva was procured by pilatus in 1997 . in 1998 pilatus australia pty ltd was established while britten norman was sold . citation needed to further the family of military training aircraft the turboprop pc 21 was developed and first flown in 2002 . 2 in december 2000 the owners unaxis previously called oerlikon b hrle sold pilatus to a consortium of swiss investors . in july 2010 the company delivered its 1000 pc 12 . 2 in 2013 pilatus created pilatus aircraft industry china co. ltd to build pc 6 and pc 12 aircraft in chongqing in a joint partnership with beijing tian xing jian yu science co. ltd. 3 the pc 24 was designed based on feedback from pc 12 customers who desired increased range and speed but wanted to retain the pc 12 s ability to use very short runways . 4 the rollout of the first aircraft hb vxa was on 1 august 2014 switzerland s national day . the aircraft s first flight was on 11 may 2015 . 5 aircraft edit name description pilatus p 1 1941 single seat trainer project only pilatus sb 2 1944 stol transporter only 1 aircraft pilatus p 2 1945 trainer pilatus p 3 1953 trainer pilatus p 4 1948 stol transporter 1 prototype only pilatus p 5 1951 artillery observation aircraft project only pilatus pc 6 1959 stol transporter pilatus pc 7 1966 turboprop trainer pilatus pc 8d 1967 stol transporter only 1 prototype pilatus pc 9 1984 turboprop trainer pilatus pc 10 1970 twin engined transporter project only pilatus pc 11 1972 glider aircraft pilatus pc 12 1991 single engined transport biz turboprop pilatus pc 21 2001 turboprop trainer pilatus pc 24 2014 twin engined transport biz jet locations edit pilatus aircraft has its headquarters along with a production plant on the buochs airport in the swiss canton of nidwalden . the headquarters and plant are in the municipality of stans . the company s wartime founding called for a location far from switzerland s borders and right up against a ridge of mount pilatus . original plans actually called for the factory to be built inside the mountain . 6 besides its day to day role as an aircraft factory the stans plant is perhaps best known for its use as a location for the film goldfinger and particularly the exterior shots where james bond crashes his db5 and is captured . 7 8 besides its stans plant the pilatus group has plants at adelaide in south australia and in broomfield colorado united states . 7 references edit personnel figures . pilatus aircraft . retrieved 6 june 2016 . a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x pilatus aircraft ltd chronicle aviation week & space technology 60 . 23 october 2013 . missing or empty title help grady mary 21 may 2013 . pilatus introduces pc 24 twinjet . avweb . retrieved 23 may 2013 . trautvetter chad 11 may 2015 . pilatus jets into the future with pc 24 first flight . aviation international news . retrieved 11 may 2015 . wallace lane pilatus in a whole new light flying magazine 2004 10 09 viewed 2013 09 14 a b about us . pilatus group . retrieved 2013 01 19 . location guide goldfinger . mi6 hq.com . retrieved 2013 01 19 . external links edit companies portal media related to pilatus aircraft at wikimedia commons company website v t e pilatus aircraft trainers p 2 p 3 pc 7 pc 9 pc 21 utility transport pc 6 stol pc 12 turboprop pc 24 jet gliders b4 pc 11 abandoned projects p 1 sb 2 p 4 p 5 pc 8 pc 10 coordinates 46 58 32.61 n 8 22 52.74 e 46.9757250 n 8.3813167 e 46.9757250 ; 8.3813167 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pilatus aircraft & oldid 743063295 categories aircraft manufacturers of switzerlandstansaerospace companies of switzerlandhidden categories pages with citations lacking titlesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2012commons category with page title same as on wikidatacoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages catal e tinadeutschespa olfran aishrvatskibahasa indonesiaitalianonederlands norsk bokm lpolskiportugu s sloven inasuomisvenska edit links this page was last modified on 7 october 2016 at 15 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view