HAMILTON, New Zealand — Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, recently visited Pacific Aerospace, which has been developing the latest model of its P-750 XSTOL aircraft over the last 18 months. “The Mark III P-750 has taken a lot of effort from our design engineers and production staff to bring to market and the hard work has paid off,” said CEO Damian Camp. “Although the P-750 was already extremely versatile we have developed a quick-change floor arrangement and easily removable role equipment that allows the aircraft to be transformed rapidly between no less than 10 distinct mission configurations.”

The different configurations include passenger; freight; agriculture, solid and liquid; firefighting; survey, geophysical and photographic; medical evacuation; skydiving; and security surveillance, he noted. “A commercial aircraft operator’s success is reliant on how many hours he or she flies per year. By taking on a range of different work with a single aircraft the operator will maximize hours flown and make more money. An operator can now do a four month aerial survey contract, immediately change to an agricultural contract and follow up with charter passenger or freight work. All other aircraft types are generally fixed in a single configuration and have minimal versatility,” he noted.

Shangdong General Aviation in China will take delivery of the first of three Mark III P-750s this month.

Company officials noted the Prince was particularly interested in the Mark III P-750 and the humanitarian work that the P-750 does in Papua New Guinea, Africa and Nepal. “I’m sure that our unique combination of humanitarian work, innovation and aviation was of real interest to the Duke,” said Camp. “We believe that these are three topics that he is keenly interested in, particularly with his piloting background. We also showed him photos of his father and grandfather inspecting Pacific Aerospace aircraft as young men.”

Pacific Aerospace is a New Zealand company with 65 years experience designing and manufacturing utility aircraft. Pacific Aerospace’s flagship product is the P-750 XSTOL: A 10-seat, turboprop utility aircraft that is certified in 15 countries.