“One engine, one planet, ten million hours.”
The Pilatus PC-12 first flew on 31 May 1991, and Swiss regulators certified it on 30 March 1994. A single Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67 turboprop drives the high-wing monoplane, yet it carries up to nine passengers or outsized cargo through a 53-inch aft door. The Royal Flying Doctor Service made it famous flying the Australian outback, while the U.S. Air Force operates a special-missions variant as the U-28A Draco. In May 2023, Pilatus delivered the 2,000th PC-12, with the global fleet logging over ten million flight hours.
One PT6A-67 and a 53-inch door took the PC-12 to 2,000 airframes and ten million hours, including outback doctor and special-mission work — a single-engine turboprop can be the more capable airplane, not the compromise.