Spanish Air Force (Ejército del Aire) received it's last two Pilatus PC-21 turboprop trainers.

Swiss company Pilatus has delivered the last two Pilatus PC-21 turboprop trainers to the Spanish Air Force (Ejército del Aire) , as per the contract to supply 24 such units and other training supports, valued at 200mn Euro. 

Pilatus Aircraft Ltd said ,

The last two PC-21s of the Ejército del Aire were flown over to San Javier yesterday. We thank the Ejército del Aire for the fantastic cooperation and wish them many happy landings with their new PC-21 fleet.

In November 2019, the Spanish Government had announced that it will acquire 24 Pilatus PC-21 turboprop training aircraft as a replacement aircraft for Spanish Airforce ageing Casa Aviojet C-101 jet trainers ,

Apart from the single-engine turboprop trainer aircraft , Spain is also procuring the simulators , computer-based training and virtual reality tools as part of the PC-21 training system for it's future generation Pilots.

On September 14th 2021, the Spanish Air Force had received its first two PC-21s , formally starting the programme to phase out old trainers, being used since 1980.

Pertaining to the initial training , Ejército del Aire has already started it last year. On May 25th 2021 , the first four flight instructors belonging to the 793 squadron of the General Air Academy had joined the Swiss facilities to receive flight instruction on the PC-21 aircraft.

Expecting to reduce the training cost by 50% , Ejército del Aire had selected Pilatus PC-21 trainers over Beechcraft T-6A Texan II and the Embraer Super Tucano due to it's cost effectivity and a cockpit similat to the latest 5th Generation fighter jets.

Other Airforces , which have selected the PC-21 as the basic trainer aircraft so far are , Singapore, Switzerland, KSA , Jordan , Qatar the United Arab Emirates, France and Australia.

Pictures : Pedro Pablo Samper

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