Born to be Versatile
Marketing 101: find out what your customers want and then give it to them. It's a very simple philosophy that far too many companies today tend to ignore. Mostly, the markets are asked to accept what the company is capable of making, and aviation is not necessarily immune to that.
Swiss manufacturer Pilatus, however, went back to marketing basics when they decided to build an upgrade to the super-successful PC-12 single-engined turbo-prop. What did the customers want? They wanted an aircraft that carried forward all the best bits of the PC-12, but it had to go faster. Only a twin jet was capable of delivering that, but Pilatus was a turbo-prop company, having made iconic aircraft such as the PC-6 Porter, PC-9, PC-21 and the PC-12. Building a jet was not only going to take them slightly out of their comfort zone, but also into the playground of established manufacturers like Cessna and Embraer.
It was a scary thing to do, but after five years of development, the PC-24 Super Versatile Jet is not only a reality, but also so successful the company has had to close off the order books. The reason for that is simple: it carries forward all the best bits of the PC-12 but is faster! The customers have what they want.
Pushed along by a couple of Williams
