TARBES, France — Daher recently completed its 800th TBM turboprop business aircraft, which rolled out from the company’s final assembly line at France’s Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport.
The milestone aircraft was a TBM 930, the latest addition to the TBM family, which is in production along with the TBM 900 version.
“The 800th TBM represents another important achievement and highlights the success of our very fast turboprop aircraft family, whose first model – the TBM 700 – entered into production 25 years ago,” said Nicolas Chabbert, Senior Vice President of the Daher Airplane Business Unit.
For the 800th TBM rollout, Daher employees involved in the TBM program gathered around the aircraft for a photo before the TBM 930’s departure to the United States – where it will be received by Elliott Aviation in Des Moines, Iowa, which is Daher’s authorized TBM distributor for North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa.
As the latest TBM family members, Daher’s TBM 900 and TBM 930 already have logged more than 150 orders since their launch in 2014, with 132 delivered as of Sept. 15, 2016.
To date, TBM aircraft have logged a combined total of 1.37 million flight hours, which is equivalent to 8,500 around-the-world flights. The global fleet of TBM 700s, TBM 850s, TBM 900s and TBM 930s are flown by more than 730 customers in 35 countries on six continents.