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Inside the Archive: Pilatus PC-9

Over the last three decades, the Pilatus PC-9/A has trained thousands of aircrew across the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force. The PC-9 is a single-engine, low-wing tandem-seat turboprop training aircraft first introduced into the Royal Australian Air Force in 1987. Designed by Pilatus Switzerland, the PC-9 was the powerful successor of the Pilatus PC-7. The aircraft completed its first flight in May 1984 and received its official certification in September of the same year.

The RAAF ordered 67 of the training aircraft under Defence Minister Kim Beazley in July 1986, the first two of which – HB-HQA and HB-HQB – were built in Switzerland and ferried to Australia in December 1987. The remaining 65 aircraft were built in Bankstown, Sydney, under license by Hawker de Havilland.

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