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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 1329.PDF
the company to focus plans for a civilian turbine on overseas markets. The PC-12 was initially conceived as a cargo aircraft, after the company saw the success of its PC-6 conversion and the Cessna 208 Caravan. Although the firm's aircraft have always had civilian uses, such as parachuting and cargo, the military was historically the main customer, accounting for nine out of every 10 aircraft sold. But market research pointed to a demand for more speed and increased cockpit comfort - as well as greater civilian usage. All along, use by private pilots had been an after thought; but following interest from small business owners when the aircraft was exhibited at various air shows, the company added a leather interior and cushioned sidewalls. Three-quarters of all production is now for US customers, where the company trades on the Swiss reputation for quality and reliability. But Swiss class is not cheap. "It's a fact that aircraft built by people cost money," says Ignaz Gretener, vice-presi dent for general aviation. Pilatus is so con cerned with keeping an artisan feel to pro duction that it only subcontracts limited parts of the structural assembly, with OGMA in Lisbon doing the riveting. "Swiss quality control is crucial," says Pilatus. That the PC-12 has found such a ready market in the USA is testimony to its quality. A major selling point has been that turbine aircraft can land at community air fields where jets are banned by local noise regulations. This means an executive can fly to his holiday home at the weekends after having used the aircraft for short-haul business trips all week. But its success in Europe has been hampered by regulations. In the European Common Airspace Coun tries, single-engined aircraft are forbidden from flying commercially under instrument flight regulations (IFR). Gretener says that this, coupled with better ground transporta tion in Europe, has seen the PC-12 make less headway in its home continent. The company is lobbying the Joint Aviation Authorities for a rule change, pointing out that privately owned single- engined piston aircraft are permitted to fly over built-up areas - and that these aircraft are often less well maintained than turbo- props in commercial use. The firm has plenty of customers, it says, just waiting for the rules to change. The Swiss air ambu lance service REGA is interested in the product, but it is simply not allowed to use it, says Georg Langhans, sales director in Europe for the aircraft. Also, private owners look to charter out aircraft downtime, which is impossible without commercial IFR approval. Elsewhere in the world, the product has been greeted with enthusiasm. The Royal Australian Flying Doctor service was the launch customer in 1989, and now three out of four divisions of the service have PC-12 fleets. Yet the project almost never got off the ground. In the 1990s, Pilatus was still owned by the Swiss holding company Oerlikon-Buhrle. The conglomerate had diversified into weapons systems invest ment and had tried to produce an air- defence system, but lost SFrl.5 billion ($890 million) after the project was scrapped. The resulting Oerlikon-Buhrle analysis concluded that aviation was too volatile a market and recommended con centrating instead on its consumer brands, such as Bally shoes. Pilatus sought out Swiss investors who would retain the com pany's facilities beside Lake Lucerne, rather than buy the design rights to its aircraft. The company is now set to launch its new PC-21 advanced trainer, but says it would be imprudent to develop more than one major new project at a time. For now, it will alternate between civilian and mili tary projects. The PC-21 was developed from the PC-12 profits, and revenue from as few as 500 PC-21s will pay for the "PC-16, PC-18 or whatever", says Gretener. In the Czech capital Prague, meanwhile, many beers were downed as aerospace workers came to grips with the business culture of their new partners. The word for Corporate aircraft beer is almost identical in Czech and in Grab's Taiwan Chinese - and this happy coinci- experience dence was a useful tension-breaker in the in producing fraught early years of co-operation between strong, all- the Czech Republic's Aero Vodochody and composite Taiwan's AIDC in their joint venture, Ibis. trainers set Peter Ciprovsky, vice-president of civil it in good aircraft programmes at Aero Vodochody, stead for the says there was a sharp learning curve when corporate the Taiwanese won the bid to invest in the market Ae-270 utility aircraft in 1997. European negotiating techniques are almost the reverse of Asian ones and subtle meanings were lost in translation. But despite a far from smooth start, the relationship is now excellent, Ciprovsky says. The first cus tomer Ae-270 has entered production and is due to be delivered to a South African operator by September. Market changes Aero Vodochody owns 50% of Ibis Aero space, which markets the Ae-270. Taipei- based AIDC and its chairman, Cheung Fong, own the remaining half. The need for a foreign investor arose early on in design of the aircraft. Following the collapse of communism in 1989, Aero Vodochody was faced with the stark reality that the market (made up of former Soviet bloc countries) for its Aero L-39 Albatross military trainer, which was already edging towards the end of its shelf life, had been almost eliminated overnight. "To say that there was panic is an exaggeration, but it was surely a crisis," says Aero Vodochody president Milos Valis. While creating Westernised versions of the current trainer, the company also recognised the immediate need to develop a civil aircraft and design work started on a "flying tractor" high-wing, low-speed pis ton aircraft, based on the Antonov An-2, to compete with basic fixed-gear utility air craft. Original designs were drawn up by a team led by Jan Miluka, who had previ ously been responsible for Zlin's series of aerobatic aircraft. By 1995, however, Aero Vodochody had noticed the early success of the Pilatus PC-12 and saw room in the owner-flyer www.flightinternational.com CENTRAL EUROPE SURVEY FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 30 APRIL - 6 MAY 2002 xxi
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