Daher-Socata has delivered the 700th TBM single-engined turboprop, 25 years after the first of the high-speed aircraft series – the TBM 700 – entered service.
The milestone aircraft, a TBM 900, was handed over to a private US customer on 15 December.
“This 700th TBM delivery demonstrates the full acceptance of the single-engine turboprop concept which is the flagship of Daher’s aerospace activities,” says Stéphane Mayer, president and chief executive of the Tarbes, France-based airframer. “We are now setting our sights on the next milestones.”
The TBM 700 was the first series-production pressurised single-engined aircraft to be certificated. When the upgraded and re-engined TBM 850 replaced this version in 2005, more than 320 had been delivered to customers worldwide.
The TBM 850 marked the introduction of the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit to the turboprop single. When this model was superseded in March by the current iteration, the TBM 900, around 340 had entered service.
Daher-Socata says it has already shipped 35 TBM 900s to date, and sales of the $3.7 million, Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66D-powered aircraft remain strong.
Source: Flight International
