Construction of the Pilatus PC 24

I’ve often been asked what motivated me to build a replica of this PC 24. For me, as a Swiss citizen, this was also a patriotic and emotional decision. As a dedicated model builder, I felt downright obligated to build a model of this aircraft in an appealing scale.

There is much to say about the construction and development of this model, which took 3,000 hours of design and labor. I’d just like to mention that I calculated the design—including dimensions and shape—based on an A4 brochure page, using conversions of the known key dimensions, along with photos taken in Geneva and during the rollout on August 1, 2014. When I decided to build this replica of the PC 24 and saw reports in the press—and specifically on May 21 on the Tagesschau news program—in the

When Swiss Television reported that a full-scale model would be on display at EBACE in Geneva, I set out on May 22, 2013, by SBB train with my camera. Upon arriving at the exhibition ticket office, I learned that admission cost 240 Swiss francs. At first, I had to sit down for 10 minutes and consider whether I should just head back home without having accomplished anything. Today I can say that, fortunately, I did end up digging out my credit card and swallowing the bitter pill of the high admission price.

During my visit to Pilatus, I was able to discuss my plan to build a PC 24 RC model. I can imagine that this project seemed a bit over the top to people at the time. I would like to thank Pilatus for their tremendous help and support during—

I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone involved during the construction period. I feel it is important to include my two friends, Julius Jezerniczky and Dani Vogt, in this expression of gratitude. In addition to their tremendous help with the painting and the outfit, these two skilled model jet pilots—under Julius’s initiative—were responsible for converting this model from the originally planned impeller drive to a mini-turbine system, including the electronics. Julius said that such a beautiful “bird” absolutely had to have the right jet sound and smell. Julius, an experienced model jet pilot, flew the model with Dani as co-pilot with admirable perfection.

Arnold Meier

The exact dimensions of the templates can be calculated using the base and side designs; however, due to the lack of a CAD program (which wasn’t available in the past either), the dimensions of the curved sections of the templates must be determined “by eye” using curved templates and verified with a straightedge.