AN INTELLIGENT AIRCRAFT

The first TBM 940 begin to arrive to the American continent. We have had the opportunity to know closely the aircraft, with important increments regarding the previous version, in Brazil. They are new technologies, still unknown to many people, which we will decipher in this article. The new aircraft results from the evolution that began with the TBM 700, the first single-engine turboprop aircraft for passengers and cargo. The “TBM” initials were chosen to pay homage to the city of Tarbes (TB), in France, were the factory is located and to remember that the project resulted from a partnership with the American company Mooney (M).

MOONEY

In the early 1980s, Mooney Airplane Company, of Kerrville, Texas, had launched the Mooney 301, a piston engine aircraft with 360 HP, pressurized, with capacity for six occupants, which was expected to have a superb performance. The prototype has flown in 1983, but two years later, the French company Socata has acquired Mooney, looking for an opportunity to develop the model 301 into something more powerful and with better performance.

In 1987, Mooney and Socata set up a joint venture named “TBM International”, to develop and produce the TBM 700 project. Initially, the aircraft would be manufactured in both companies, and Mooney would be in charge of its distribution in the US and Socata in the rest of the world. But in 1991, financial problems have forced Mooney to give up this contract, leaving to Socata (from 2000, EADS-Socata) the production exclusivity.

From the development of the first model until the present days, several variants came up. The first TBM 700A was equipped with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-64 engine, with 700 HP shaft power (shp), while future versions of the “700” were given successive improvements, such as larger rear door, reinforced structure, increase in the maximum takeoff weight and new air conditioning system, among others.

TBM 850

The model “N” of the TBM 700 began to be equipped with a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66D engine, with 850 HP shaft power and was given the commercial name of TBM