![Plane + Pilot magazine’s Cayla McLeod (right) talks with Edwin Black (left), president of Blackhawk Aerospace, at EAA AirVenture in July. [Credit: AVweb]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-31-at-1.18.17-PM.png)
Every summer, the grounds at Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) are abuzz with all things general aviation. EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin has become an annual fixture for Blackhawk.
This year, the turboprop upgrade specialist was situated in one of the show’s most trafficked corners, within sight of Boeing on one side and Garmin on the other. There, the company rolled out two airplanes which demonstrate that an older airframe, given a modern engine, can still hold its own against modern production aircraft.
“We’re pleased to be at Oshkosh 2026 again, as usual, here at the Blackhawk booth, where we’re showcasing a couple of our masterpieces,” said Edwin Black, president of Blackhawk Aerospace. Black sat down with Plane + Pilot editor-in-chief Cayla McLeod to discuss Blackhawk’s newly certified TBM 700 engine upgrade, the performance work behind Mark Patey’s “Perry” the Pilatus, and what it’s like showing off both airplanes on the Oshkosh flight line.
The two aircraft anchoring the booth told two different chapters of the same story. One was a Pilatus PC-12 belonging to Patey, a familiar face in the homebuilt and modification community, whose airplane has become something of a mascot for Blackhawk’s work. The other was a TBM 700 whose owner had, only a year earlier, been just another attendee walking the show grounds.
‘Perry’ the Pilatus
Patey’s PC-12, known affectionately to airshow regulars as “Perry,” demonstrates the value of engine upgrade programs.
“We’ve loved working with Mark Patey and his team to put the Finnoff engine upgrade on the Pilatus PC-12,” Black said. “It’s really fun to showcase all the improvements, upgrades, and modern safety technologies you can put into some of these older legacy aircraft to keep them relevant.”
The upgrade Black is referring to swaps the PC-12’s factory Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67B (rated at 1,200 shaft hp) for the uprated PT6A-67P used in the conversion program. The change comes primarily from certifying a new engine with higher allowable interstage turbine temperature limits, from 800 degrees Celsius at takeoff and 760 degrees in climb and cruise to 850 and 820 degrees, respectively.
In practical terms, that means roughly 142 additional thermodynamic horsepower is available on tap. Perhaps more importantly for owners who fly in the high teens and low 20s, the engine can hold full rated power all the way to 25,000 feet, where a stock PC-12 begins losing power above 15,000 feet under standard conditions.
Given that the PC-12’s mission has always been about hauling people and cargo into places bigger jets can’t reach, that difference shows up directly in climb rates and the margin a pilot has left over rough terrain or weather.
From a Booth Conversation to a TBM Flying Like an 850
While Perry is the result of a long-running relationship with one customer, the TBM 700 sitting nearby demonstrates just how drastic of a change Blackhawk’s upgrades can bring.
“We had a very interested customer approach us last year at Oshkosh,” Black said. “He went ahead and put in the engine upgrade, and now we’re displaying his airplane here.”
Blackhawk’s XP66D program replaces the TBM 700’s original PT6A-64, rated at 700 hp, with a PT6A-66D rated at 850 hp, the same engine that comes standard on the factory-built TBM 850. Blackhawk has said the 150 hp increase lets an upgraded TBM 700 climb to FL 310 in about 22 minutes, compared to roughly 28 minutes for a stock airplane, and reach cruise speeds up to 303 knots true airspeed, a gain of about 25 knots.
As Black put it at the booth, the goal is to give it the same performance levels as the TBM 850, effectively erasing the performance gap between two airplanes that share a fuselage but were built more than a decade apart.
The upgrade received FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) approval only months before this year’s show, making the airplane on display one of the earlier customer installations to return to Oshkosh. Such a turnaround is exactly the kind of story Black likes to tell.
“That’s what we like to do at Blackhawk,” he said. “We upgrade some of these older airplanes and give people more performance in their older legacy aircraft and bring them up to modern factory standards.”
Getting to that story this year required a bit of patience. Wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada blanketed the Fox River Valley in the days leading up to AirVenture and was thick enough that Wittman Regional’s approach controllers had to run the field under IFR even as inbound pilots tried to time their arrivals around it.
The conditions created a lot of uncertainty for exhibitors, but the forecast turned in Blackhawk’s favor. Wind moved through and cleared the haze, and by the time the show opened, blue skies had returned to Oshkosh. EAA reported that AirVenture 2026 drew roughly 734,000 attendees over the week, a new all-time record for the event.
Asked to pick a favorite among the airplanes in Blackhawk’s booth, Black didn’t hesitate to sidestep the trap gracefully.
“My favorite one is always the last one that we just approved,” he said. “That would be the TBM 700 series.”
What makes it a favorite is what happens after the wrench work is done.
“One of the best things I get to do is after we upgrade an aircraft, I’ll call the owners and say, ‘Hey, what do you think?’ And that upgrade has not disappointed,” Black said. “All the owners are thrilled with the performance.”
That enthusiasm he said is really just a smaller version of what fills the grounds at Oshkosh every year.
“That excitement level from the owners is shared among everybody at EAA who comes out to enjoy and celebrate aviation history,” Black said. “You’ve got the warbirds. You have the latest and greatest technologies. What more could you want under the blue skies of Oshkosh?”
From P-51 Mustangs performing overhead to Perry the Pilatus parked a few hundred feet away, Oshkosh 2026 offered Blackhawk a fitting backdrop. In aviation, old and new don’t have to be opposites. Sometimes, they’re just two stages of the same airplane’s life.
