In the shadow of the 7,000ft-high Pilatus mountain, in a flat rural area nestling among the peaks of Central Switzerland, Urs Weidmann found Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, manufacturer of some of the world's leading single-engined turboprop aircraft. BASED on a concept developed over a year and accelerated by the outbreak of World War Two, a group of industrialists and politicians founded Pilatus Aircraft at Stans on December 16, 1939. The main purpose of the company was to produce aircraft for the Swiss Air Force, although it was clear even then that it would not be viable without export orders. The mountain location was chosen because it offered protection from enemy attacks and a suitable plot of land was acquired by Emil Georg Buehrle. He was the owner of Oerlikon-Biihrle, the Zurich-based industrial complex and added Pilatus Aircraft to his group of companies. At first, the new Stans facilities assembled C-35s for the Swiss Air Force. These were single-engined fighter, attack and reconnaissance biplanes developed by the Federal Aircraft Company (F+W) at Thun (near Interlaken). Later, military aircraft were repaired and maintained, and a drawing of a training aircraft designated P-1 was submitted to the military but did not materialise. A prototype of a slow-flying, short take-off and landing (STOL) monoplane designed at the Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich, the SB-2 Pelikan, was flown in 1944 and the first successful aircraft, the P-2 trainer, was designed and first flown days before the war in Europe ended. The first all-metal aircraft, the P-3, followed in 1953 and was the basis for the highly successful, turboprop-powered PC-7 of 1975. Its Pratt & Whitney PT6A was a version of the engine that equipped the Turbo Porter version of the STOL utility aircraft that had first flown in 1959. It has since powered every Pilatus aircraft, including the PC-9 and PC-21 military trainers and the PC-12 executive utility flagship.
展开▼
机译：在7,000英尺高的皮拉图斯山脉的阴影下，在瑞士中部群峰之中的一片平坦的乡村中，乌尔斯·魏德曼找到了皮拉图斯飞机有限公司，这是一些世界领先的单引擎涡轮螺旋桨飞机的制造商。基于经过一年多发展并随着第二次世界大战爆发而加速发展的概念，一群工业家和政治家于1939年12月16日在斯坦斯成立了皮拉图斯飞机。该公司的主要目的是为瑞士空军生产飞机，尽管即使那时仍然很清楚，没有出口订单将是不可行的。选择该山脉的位置是因为它提供了防御敌人攻击的保护，并且Emil Georg Buehrle获得了一块合适的土地。他是苏黎世工业园区Oerlikon-Biihrle的所有者，并将皮拉图斯飞机公司加入了他的公司集团。首先，新的斯坦斯工厂为瑞士空军组装了C-35。这些飞机是图恩（因特拉肯附近）的联邦飞机公司（F + W）开发的单引擎战斗机，攻击和侦察双翼飞机。后来，对军用飞机进行了维修和保养，并向军方提交了指定为P-1的训练飞机的图纸，但没有实现。 SB-2 Pelikan是苏黎世联邦理工学院设计的慢速飞行，短距起降（STOL）单翼飞机的原型，于1944年飞行，首架成功的飞机P-2教练机是在欧洲战争结束前几天设计并首飞的。第一架全金属飞机，P-3，于1953年问世，是1975年以涡轮螺旋桨发动机成功获得成功的PC-7的基础。其普惠PT6A是配备了涡轮波特版本的发动机的一种版本。这架STOL多用途飞机于1959年首飞，此后它便为Pilatus的每架飞机提供动力，包括PC-9和PC-21军事教练机以及PC-12执行公用事业旗舰。
展开▼
