Antoine Gazda, working as a sales manager for the Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon, negotiated a licence agreement with Vickers and offered swiss-built Spitfires to the Flugwaffe.

On October 21, 1938, a society named «Studiengesellschaft zur Gründung einer Flugzeugfabrik AG» was founded and designated the future company to be located at Stans.

Without the now obsolete «Studiengesellschaft», Emil Bührle and Gazda continued on the project and founded the Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG with the help of Elektrobank on 16.

[9] The first company proposal to the Swiss Air Force was a single-seat trainer, designated the P-1, although no records exist of the work done on it and not even the name of the project was ever mentioned[10] on the two drawings that were discovered in the federal archives.

[12] The five-seat experimental aircraft first flew on 30 May 1944 and only one of the type was built - resulting in a financial loss for the company that was higher than what it was ever paid for.

[9] During the late 1940s, the company produced a number of wooden glider designs, and also handled the production of fuselages and tail-booms for the licence-produced De Havilland Vampire and Venom.

[9] The P-3 was put into quantity production for the Swiss Air Force, and the company also achieved its first export success with the type: an order for six P-3s by the Brazilian Navy.

[17] Furthermore, during 1965, a twin-engined variant of the PC-6 was built as the PC-8 Twin Porter, although it first flew on 15 November 1967, the aircraft remained an experimental and one-off type, and development was stopped in 1972.

[citation needed] During 1973, it was decided to restart work on the PC-7 programme; factors for its revival had included the 1973 oil crisis, the launch of the rival Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor, and the increasing age of existing trainer aircraft.

[21][22] Under the new company's direction, new features were installed upon the Islander over the years, such as the fitting of silencers upon both the aircraft's engine and propellers to better facilitate operations in noise-sensitive environments.

Development of what was to become the company's best selling type, the Pilatus PC-12, was started in 1987, a single-engined turboprop transport that could carry up to twelve passengers or freight.

[9] On 30 March 1994, the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation issued the type certificate for the PC-12;[26] The first PC-12 Eagle surveillance aircraft was built in 1995, further developments led to the PC-12 Spectre; amongst other customers, it was adopted by the United States Air Force as the U-28A.

In order to achieve this aim, the new trainer was required to have an expanded performance envelope in terms of aerodynamics, cockpit equipment, flexibility, and ease of maintenance.

[38] The PC-24 was designed based on feedback from PC-12 customers, who desired increased range and speed, but wanted to retain the PC-12's ability to use very short runways.

[46] Besides its day-to-day role as an aircraft factory, the Stans plant is perhaps best known for its use as a location for the film Goldfinger, particularly the exterior shots in which James Bond crashes his DB5 and is captured.

[49] In 2019, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) launched an investigation into the company for providing logistical support and maintenance services to military aircraft in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate, both involved in the war in Yemen.

In 2021, the decision of the FDFA was annulled by the Federal Administrative Court based on "incompatibility with the [Swiss] government's foreign policy objectives"[52] Pilatus Aircraft was implicated in a bribery scandal in India.

[53] Pilatus was accused of violating India’s Prevention of Corruption Act, with investigations revealing financial transfers to intermediaries and consultants allegedly involved in facilitating the deal.

Indian authorities, as part of the inquiry, scrutinized the involvement of middlemen including notorious arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who would have received $50 million through the Dubai branch of Offset India Solutions Private Limited.