Skip to content
The Aviation Hub

Manufacturer database

Manufacturer search

Look up any aircraft manufacturer in the world. How long they have been building, where they build it, what they are known for, and everything we have published about them.

Try: Airbus Boeing Embraer De Havilland

Track it yourself

How many Pilatus Aircraft types have you logged?

Spotter files every sighting by type and manufacturer on your own PC, so you can see which airframes you have caught and which are still missing. One payment of £4.99, no subscription.

See Spotter

Pilatus Aircraft

and still building

87 Years in business
Founded
16 December 1939
Founder
Not recorded
Headquarters
Stans (Nidwalden), Switzerland
Parent company
Oerlikon-Bührle, (1939–2000)
Employees
3,000
Products
Fixed-wing aircraft

About the manufacturer

Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. is an aerospace manufacturer located in Stans, Switzerland. In August 2025, the company employed around 3,000 people. The company has mostly produced aircraft for niche markets, in particular short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft as well as military training aircraft. During the 1950s and 1960s, Pilatus developed a short takeoff and landing (STOL) light civil transport aircraft, the PC-6 Porter. In 1973, it was decided to restart work on a turbine version of the piston engine trainer P-3, which entered production as the PC-7 Turbo Trainer. In 1979, Pilatus acquired Britten-Norman, manufacturer of the Britten-Norman Islander and Britten-Norman Defender aircraft. During the 1980s, it developed the PC-9, an improved derivative of the PC-7. During the 1990s, Pilatus opened up a broader civilian market with the introduction of the PC-12, a single-engine turboprop aircraft and has delivered 1,800 as of April 2021. In the 2000s, it also introduced a new member family of its military training aircraft, the turboprop-powered PC-21. During the 2010s, the company developed the PC-24, a twin-engined STOL jet aircraft capable of operating from unpaved runways.

This summary is adapted from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence. Build totals and largest customer are our own figures, shown with a source where we hold one.