PC-6 Porter
ICAO PC6TA Swiss utility aircraft that can land almost anywhere, including on glaciers. Live PC-6 Porter positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No PC-6 Porter is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Pilatus
- Role
- Light utility transport
- Class
- L1T — Landplane, 1 turboprop engine
- Crew
- 1 to 2
- First flight
- 4 May 1959
- In service
- 1959
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the PC-6 Porter
The Porter is a specialist in getting into places aircraft should not go. Fixed undercarriage, an enormous wing and huge flaps give it short-field performance that borders on the absurd — it can be airborne in a couple of hundred metres, and on skis it routinely lands on glaciers.
Military users value the same qualities. Austria, Switzerland, Thailand and several others have used it for liaison, parachute training and supply into mountain strips; the United States flew it in Vietnam as the AU-23 Peacemaker.
Production finally ended in 2019 after sixty years. Surviving aircraft appear here occasionally, usually on short local flights.
Callsign prefixes
- SUI
- Swiss Air Force
- AUSTRIAN
- Austrian Air Force
- RTAF
- Royal Thai Air Force
How to recognise it
- —A high-wing single turboprop with fixed undercarriage and a long, greenhouse-like cabin.
- —A very large wing relative to the fuselage, with full-span flaps.
- —A tall, angular fin and a nose that slopes steeply down from the windscreen.
Common questions
+ How short a runway does a PC-6 need?
Remarkably little — a few hundred metres at typical weights, and less into wind. That performance is why it is used for glacier landings and mountain supply work.
+ What was the AU-23 Peacemaker?
An armed American version of the Porter used in Southeast Asia for counter-insurgency, carrying a side-firing cannon and underwing stores.
+ Is the PC-6 still built?
No. Pilatus ended production in 2019 after sixty years, the longest continuous production run of any Swiss aircraft.