Professional Pilot, March 2018

PlaneSense receives 1st operational Pilatus PC 24 T hursday February 8 was a day of great excitement at PSM Portsmouth NH The 1st production Pilatus PC 24 twin engine business jet made its public debut in the hangars of PlaneSense the fractional operator that is the lead customer for the all new Pilatus jet program A crowd of more than 100 customers employees and executives of Pilatus PlaneSense engine builder Williams and avionics supplier Honeywell were on hand for the day long festivities at PlaneSense headquarters at PSM Pilatus CEO Martin Bucher noted that the new PC 24 is the culmination of a 12 year development program costing approximately 500 million financed entirely by Pilatus We are immensely proud to have our long time partner PlaneSense 26 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 take delivery of our first production aircraft Bucher said The PC 24 raises the bar in private jet travel and perfectly embodies our principles of comfort and service said PlaneSense President and CEO George Antoniadis We are very excited to be taking delivery of the first PC 24 in the world On January 30 the new PC 24 had flown from Pilatus headquarters in Stans Switzerland where it was built to Pilatus North America headquarters at BJC Broomfield CO There the aircraft was officially handed over to PlaneSense on Feb 7 in a private ceremony attended by the Pilatus dealers in the Americas Later that day the aircraft flew to PSM The PC 24 was flown by Plane Sense pilots who had already completed training at FlightSafety Internationals facility in Dallas where the training company has a newly certificated Level D PC 24 simulator PlaneSense maintenance personnel have also completed training at FSI Everything is in place for a seamless introduction Antoniadis noted PlaneSense has already begun selling shares in the PC 24 with a base share equaling 1 16th of the aircraft The 1st revenue flight for the PC 24 is expected in March In discussing development of the program Bucher said the PC 24 traces its roots back to design studies for a follow on aircraft to the PC 12 but with more range and speed Those studies began in the 2005 2006 timeframe The cargo door requirement for example was a carry over from the PC 12 By 2010 the concept had evolved into a twin engine jet and the design program for the PC 24 was launched Actual design and development of the jet took approximately 7 years culminating with FAA and EASA certification on Dec 7 2017 There were 3 flying proto DELIVERY CELEBRATION Portsmouth based fractional operator will fly 6 of the new Swiss built twin jets that are powered by Williams FJ44 4A QPM and have Honeywell ACE avionics By Mike Potts Senior Contributing Writer Standing by the PC 24 are L R are Pilatus Business Aircraft President CEO Thomas Bosshard PlaneSense CEO President George Antoniadis and Pilatus Aircraft Ltd CEO Markus Bucher The worlds first PC 24 MSN 101 ready for delivery at Pilatus Business Aircrafts facility at BJC Broomfield CO Photos courtesy Pilatus