Why The Coming Textron Turboprop Spells Trouble For Pilatus

With scores of engineers and copious focus data, Textron appears to have nailed the product, which, they remind us all, is on track for 2018.

It's not really news as much as a continuing tease, but Textron Aviation announced from EBACE, the European NBAA in Geneva, Switzerland, this week that its single-engine pressurized turboprop single is indeed on schedule. At last year's actual NBAA in Las Vegas Textron's VP of turboprops Christi Tannahill poked her head into the GE press conference, in which the propulsion giant was announcing news of its next-gen turboprop, to confirm that Textron was indeed the launch customer with its then-unnamed and still-unnamed turboprop single. If that news didn't send shivers down the spines of leaders at Pilatus' headquarters in Stans, Switzerland, it should have. A Cesscraft turboprop is bad news for the PC-12, the big Swiss cash cow that sells on the order of 50 copies a year at just south of $5 million, about what the Textron product will go for.

Courtesy of Textron Aviation

Oh, and what everyone wants to know---is it a Cessna, a Beechcraft or a Textron? Well, Textron isn't saying. It will be an all-metal airplane with a classic King Air look to it, but the interior is all late-model Cessna jets. So your call on this is as good as ours.

Regardless of what brand the new model gets tagged with, the problem for Pilatus is that the new bird will be about as good or better at just about every book number of the PC-12, with a projected top speed of 285 knots (slightly better than the PC-12), a range of better than 1,600 nm (slightly less than the PC-12) and a full-fuel payload of around 1,100 lbs. (about the same as the Swiss single), but all behind an engine that produces 10 percent more power (for better climb and hot and high performance) and 20 percent more efficiently. As operators of turbine aircraft know, better efficiency equals lower direct operating costs.

Even better for Textron, its new single will out-Pilatus Pilatus, with a cabin that will be slightly larger, feature a flat floor (a first for this class of planes) and boast a cargo door that rivals the impressive portal in the PC-12. The interior would look to raise the bar substantially in the segment.

The new plane will feature the crowd-pleasing G3000 avionics suite and a new five-blade prop from McCauley, which will rival the five-blade Hartzell model on the TBM 900/930.

Courtesy of Textron Aviation

Indeed, it's not just Pilatus that has to worry, though. This is bad news for a few different companies, whose competing products not only will have another new competitor to fend off in an increasingly busy sector, but a competitor with an edge in several key areas. While Daher's TBM 900 and 930 models and Epic's comely turboprop single are 50 knots faster than the fat fuselage haulers from Switzerland and Wichita, the lure of a Textron product, and its famous service center support, will doubtless win away some customers on the fence between speed and payload.

Look for a pilot report on the new Textron turboprop, hopefully, in 2017!

Visit Textron Aviation at txtav.com.

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.

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