In the early years of World War II, Pilatus sought building rights for an Italian and a German training aircraft. When it became apparent that no license rights were available, Pilatus decided to develop the P-2 training aircraft. The air force wanted a training aircraft for two different tasks: a retraining aircraft as a step between the training aircraft and the front-line aircraft, and an aircraft for weapons training such as shooting, bombing, and radio training. Construction of the first prototype began toward the end of 1943. The first flight took place on April 27, 1945, and after testing of the second prototype, a series of 26 P-2.05 retraining aircraft was ordered in 1946. The Air Force needed an armed training aircraft, and the P-2.06 was built in a series of 26 units in 1948. The P-2 remained in service with the Swiss Air Force until 1981.