SOCATA TBM

The SOCATA TBM, later sold as the Daher TBM, is a family of single-engine turboprop aircraft for fast personal and light business travel. It grew out of the Mooney 301, a six-seat pressurised piston prototype that first flew in April 1983. After French owners took over Mooney in 1985, the American firm and the French maker SOCATA agreed to build a much heavier turboprop development, called the TBM 700; the letters stand for Tarbes, where SOCATA is based, and Mooney. A joint venture was formed in June 1987, the first prototype flew on 14 July 1988, and French and US certification followed in 1990. The sources describe it as the first high-performance single-engine passenger and cargo aircraft to enter production, and later models such as the TBM 850 and TBM 900 refined the same layout.