SOCATA TBM

The SOCATA TBM 700 (also marketed as the TBM 850 and Daher TBM 900) is a high performance single-engine turboprop light business and utility aircraft manufactured by DAHER-SOCATA. An aerodynamically refined version of the 700N is marketed as the TBM 900 from March 2014.

Design and development

In the early 1980s, the Mooney Airplane Company of Kerrville, Texas designed a six-seat pressurised light aircraft powered by a single 360 hp (268 kW) piston engine, the Mooney 301, which made its maiden flight on 7 April 1983. Mooney was purchased by French owners in 1985, which resulted in talks between Mooney and the French company SOCATA to build a turboprop derivative of the 301. The result of these discussions was the TBM 700, which was much heavier than the 301 with more than twice the power, with a joint venture, TBM International, being set up in June 1987 between Mooney and Socata's parent company Aérospatiale to design and build the new aircraft. In the designation TBM, "TB" stands for Tarbes, the city in France in which Socata is located, the "M" stands for Mooney.