The Last Porter Heads Home, Ending a 50-Year Production Run

Pilatus has officially delivered the very last Porter PC-6, the firm's long-lived turboprop STOL aircraft. 

Throughout its long production life, the Porter became an international fixture in areas hard to access with traditional aircraft thanks to its light weight, robust manufacture, and tailwheel configuration. While comparable aircraft have come and gone, the PC-6 remained in low-rate production at the company's Stans facility from 1959 to 2019. From start to finish, Pilatus produced 500 PC-6s in its Swiss facility, with an additional 100 produced in the USA under license. 

Pilatus reorganized and reassigned the production space at Stans with the upcoming introduction of the PC-24 in 2017, announcing the termination of the Porter due to "the age of the PC-6 and other certification parameters". 

“I am proud that the PC-6 featured in the Pilatus product portfolio, this aircraft has earned us fame and recognition worldwide," said then-chairman of the board Oscar J. Schwenk. "But the time has now come to take a dispassionate look at the facts and admit that every product has a life cycle which must come to an end sooner or later. That moment has arrived for the PC-6. With an eye on the future, however, we now look forward to the imminent market launch of the PC-24 Super Versatile Jet, which embodies, and carries forward, all the original values of the PC-6.”

FMI: www.pilatus-aircraft.com