Wednesday, September 08, 2010

It all began here....

It's pretty clear from just walking around the factory, that the people building these aeroplanes are very proud of their achievements - as they should be, it's an amazing place. Equally, it is clear that they got the PC12 pretty much right from the outset. This is the first prototype, now retired to a pole, and walking around it, you can see that very little has really been changed over the years. Yes, the wings are 2 metres shorter, and there are no ventral fins, but everything else is either the same, or has only had small detail changes.

The second prototype (of only two prototypes TOTAL), is also at the factory, and is airworthy, still used for occasional equipment testing. It has been modified to accept all kinds of test gear, so it no longer conforms to the type certificate as such, but is still a very useful airframe, as well as being historic.

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