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Training fighter pilots, unsurprisingly, can be a pretty expensive business because recruits need to swap between two to three aircraft. The Pilatus PC-21 changes all that by becoming arguably the first trainer that schools can use to skill up Topguns from start to – almost – finish. It’s a giant leap ahead of its processors: the PC-9/A, introduced in 1988, and the CT-4B Airtrainer, which can trace its lineage back to 1975.
The turboprop PC-21 is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-68B engine and has a stepped tandem cockpit seating the student in front and the instructor behind. Yet its design is squarely focused on preparing recruits for fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35. The PC-21 has a pressurised cockpit, air conditioning, anti-G system, on-board oxygen generator and can fly at low-level speeds over 320 knots.
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Rex
says:A somewhat disappointing selection of shots to showcase RAAF PC-21 aircraft. With almost four years of operations in Australia since arrival of the first batch in early 2017, surprises me that a significant number of the shots in the gallery are not actually RAAF aircraft, or date from the pre-delivery phase of their lives. No shots of the Roulettes in all their smoking glory. No shots of the grey tails operated by 4SQN and ARDU (nor even a mention of them in the accompanying short narrative). Missed opportunity here.