Just three years after the Wright brothers’ Flyer took a trip over the sands of the Kill Devil Hills, Alberto Santos-Dumont made his longest public flight stretching more than 700 feet from a field near Paris, France, in 1906. Just five years later, the precursor to Daher—the company that would one day build the TBM 960/910 single-engine turboprops capable of deftly spanning an ocean—was born.

A Tradition of Flexibility

Daher’s roots go back to 1911, when pilot Léon Morane, his brother Robert, and engineer Raymond Saulnier founded its predecessor company, Morane-Saulnier, in northern France. What would become Daher started under the shadows of both the Pyrénées mountains and the darkening skies of German aggression in 1938, at the plant situated between Tarbes and Lourdes. Tarbes was home to roughly 35,000 people around the start of World War II, much like today. The provincial capital of the Bigorre region in the Haute-Pyrénées department, it lies close to the current aerospace hub of Toulouse.

• READ MORE: We Fly: Daher TBM 960

Perhaps Tarbes was not an obvious candidate for an aircraft factory in the late 1930s, but its location—distant from Paris and tucked into a quiet corner of the country—made it an ideal place for the company to survive the war to come. Philippe De Segovia speaks of documents unearthed in the last 10 years pointing to the involvement of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operatives who helped the company hold up a facade of cooperation—and kept it fabricating aircraft (such as the M.S.406 fighter) through the war. “This is entirely based on the testimonials of those who survived,” de Segovia says, “since very little written record was left.”

On January 7, 1962, Potez purchased the company, designating it SEEMS (Société d’Exploitation des Etablissements Morane-Saulnier). The main company ultimately split off its civilian models, which took the SOCATA marque (Société de Construction d’Avions de Tourisme et Affaires). In 1966, Aérospatiale (formerly Sud Aviation) purchased the company, and then EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) acquired it in 2000.

Daher Enters, Then the Kodiak

The current era began when EADS sold a controlling interest in EADS SOCATA to Daher, a transaction completed in January 2009 that created Daher-SOCATA. Daher, an industrial conglomerate based in Marseille, France, had accumulated expertise in industrial production through previous acquisitions that dovetailed with its growing experience in the aerospace sector. Daher will mark its 160th anniversary in 2023.

In 2019, Daher announced it would expand its line of single-engine turboprops—the TBM line that had its heritage starting with the Mooney 301—with the acquisition of Quest Aircraft Company’s assets. The target? The Kodiak 100, built in Sandpoint, Idaho. Daher now spans the Atlantic with a footprint in both the U.S. and France. In early 2022, Daher took on another U.S.-based manufacturing facility with the purchase of Triumph Group’s aerostructures and assembly business based in Stuart, Florida. Daher also operates a structures plant in Nogales, Mexico, and a sales and maintenance center in Pompano Beach, Florida.

• READ MORE: Daher Makes a Play to Expand Footprint in North American Market

Entrepreneurial Spirit

The current parent company has turned the previous top-down management style around 180 degrees. CEO Didier Kayat oversees Daher in total, with Nicolas Chabbert serving as managing director of the aircraft business unit overall, as well as CEO of Daher Aircraft and Kodiak Aircraft. It is Daher’s corporate philosophy that each business unit leader embrace an entrepreneurial spirit—and take risks and responsibility accordingly. “[The] entrepreneur style is a part of Daher culture,” de Segovia says. “It was brought when SOCATA was merged in 2009, by Mr. Daher and his team; now, the captain in [this] function is Didier Kayat.”

The esprit de corps (and the drive to secure production line talent) flows throughout the workforce. Processes have evolved significantly over the past 85 years. Though some assemblies must still be welded, such as the joining of the exhaust stack halves—and the fuselage sees rows of rivets like its legacy predecessors—other processes transform entire blocks of aluminum to shining spar sections. Machines use a water process to precisely cut detailed parts, according to the drawing programmed into the unit’s computer. That capability—to turn a wide variety of data into aircraft parts—forms the foundation of the Daher business plan.

Following the Line

The construction of the TBM 910/960 follows an integrated pathway through the plant, picking up in-house parts and those from suppliers along the way. The production line segments begin as a collection of airframe parts, starting with formers for the fuselage and carrying on with those for the nose section and accessories.

The wing spars form the central backbone of an airplane highly resistant to failure. To this end, Daher mills those on the TBMs from solid blocks of aluminum alloy and adds carry-through spars to provide additional torsional strength and rigidity.

• READ MORE: Ferry Flight: Daher TBM 940

Teams form and match the aluminum skins for the wings while others produce ribs and stringers. Meanwhile, technicians align and check the fuselage formers in smaller jigs, then transition them to a vertical jig, optimizing its location for the task at hand. Across the aisle, the nose section comes into a recognizable shape, and both sections take on their skins before coming together.

Then, the fuselage is turned back to a horizontal position for joining. The interior structure goes in to form the instrument panel: the avionics bays, the environmental and pressurization systems elements, as well as the runs for the wiring harnesses. One evolution Daher has made to its production flow is having accessories come in earlier, so that their installation doesn’t consume valuable space, time, and effort later on the line.

Final Assembly

Next? Attaching the engine mount to the pristine titanium firewall. All of the work needed to get ready for the Pratt & Whitney PT6 variants—the PT6A-66D on the 910 and the PT6E-66XT on the 960—including pass-throughs for the power controls and accessories, comes in here. The empennage is metal bonded in the composites department. This process sees the aluminum skins stiffened by aluminum honeycomb, bonded together in an atmospherically controlled room and cured in the autoclave. The wings return on a truck to the Daher plant “green and empty,” painted with sage-colored anti-corrosion material and “empty” of any flight controls. They go to the paint booth for base paint, then return to the assembly line. Technicians attach the flight controls and other key items. Then the fuselage, empennage, cowlings, and fairings go into the paint booth for two coats of gray base paint, before the final scheme is applied.

At the same time, a separate team builds the interior, finishing the seats with the chosen leather. Once the paint is shot, the airplane comes to life with the final mating of the wings and empennage inside the completion hangar. There, technicians hang the PT6 and attach the propeller. Besides the engine, the other difference between the two models lies in the instrument panel, with either the Garmin G1000 or G3000 with touch screens going into the flight deck. After flight testing, it returns to the delivery hangar for its unveiling to a fortunate customer.

This article was first published in the Q3 2022 edition of FLYING Magazine.

The post Building It: Daher TBM 960 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I look through the images and I swear I am smiling the entire time.

Scrolling through them on my phone, in my mind I go straight back to flying formation circles over the Atlantic coast of Florida … finding the sweet spot on the yoke for my hand … the Zen-like focus on the photo ship—this time a Cessna 310 piloted by Bruce Moore—and Jim Barrett’s lens poking through the open baggage door.

I remember too, that I’m actually singing to myself, just under the volume where I’d break the squelch and subject Daher training director Wayman Luy to my vocal stylings.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy … the sun breaks over the low cloud deck, and we catch its rise in the arc of the prop. And now, it’s FAA certified.

Finding the Sweet Spot

Following my first flying acquaintance with the TBM series on a magnificent ferry flight last fall in a TBM 940, I’ve been waiting patiently for my next date.

The payoff? Daher had a surprise in store. How to build on the game-changing 940 with HomeSafe, Garmin’s Autoland suite that secured FLYING’s 2021 Innovation Award? The answer: a new model that moves the series forward.

If you recall, HomeSafe enables the owner-pilot to help sell the airplane to a non-flying spouse—and gives them both a button to push in the event the pilot loses the ability to put the airplane down safely. Not everyone is going to be as cool-headed as that Cessna Caravan passenger who landed in Palm Beach following his pilot’s sudden incapacitation back in May. I heard one colleague say after watching Garmin’s demo video of Autoland, “Where’s the onset of panic?” The button is big and red and in the middle of the panel for this precise reason, though no one says that quiet part out loud.

• READ MORE: Ferry Flight: Daher TBM 940

One non-pilot spouse of a TBM 940 owner I spoke with recently brought it up herself—I didn’t ask. Though she has flown with her husband for many years in pursuit of their own aviation business, and she knows how to land the airplane with confidence, she much prefers having the HomeSafe protocol as an option. It brings her real peace of mind.

After introducing HomeSafe in the 940 just two years ago, Daher has chosen to continue its plan to develop a new model in a regular biennial rhythm. So, what’s new with the 960? It turns out that the airplane takes a solid step in an eco-direction, and in a bit more automation that leads to real benefits for pilots and owner/operators focused on long-term efficiency and extended TBOs.

I sat poised to fly over to Daher’s Aircraft Division headquarters in Tarbes, France, at a moment’s notice, but I had to wait until the 2022 Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo to get my hands on the latest TBM.

As it turned out, this gave me the chance to follow the demo unit, F-HAHF, serial number (SN) 1409—which I’d likely seen on the line in parts during my visit to Tarbes in November 2021—across the pond via FlightAware, then sit in the airplane on Daher’s static display with senior vice president Nicolas Chabbert. He’s an active ferry pilot for the TBM model series he has helped to shepherd and promote since 1992. Pilot to pilot, he debriefed the crossing flight with me, and then walked me through the key updates I would find in the 960 when I flew it.

In my conversation with Chabbert, he referred to the guiding principles of flight deck and control design that he compared to those of Audi. As a longtime Audi driver, I saw the connection. I had the chance to drive the Audi Quattro—not the coupe but the Rally car—about the same time I learned to fly in high school. I first drove a stick in a 4000 Quattro—and loved the A4 1.8T I had years later. The quest for high-end ergonomics and solidity in control feel translates across the designs from car to airplane.

In my introduction to the 960’s updates, Chabbert gestured through the flow for engine start—greatly simplified from those starts in the early 700 series and even in the 940 from my recent acquaintance. He purposefully left the throttle an inch forward to demonstrate the CAS message that illuminates when the system registers a discrepancy or a parameter out of position for the automated sequence to continue.

• READ MORE: Building It: Daher TBM 960

He talked me through Daher’s flight test process, and the thoughtfulness driven into details such as the integration of the Garmin G3000 suite into the panel—such as the 3-degree cant to the display bezels to help position them in an optimized place for pilots with varying vision. It’s a nod to the average age of the TBM pilot group and the progressive lenses we may wear.

The Data Stream

The airframe has proven an elegant match for both the flight deck and the Pratt & Whitney PT6 series that powers it. And that’s where the largest change lies—in the integration between the free-turbine PT6E-66XT and the brains of the airplane. The dual-channel FADEC along with the prop control—which Pratt & Whitney calls the engine and propeller electronic control system (EPECS)—uses segregated control, redundant interfaces, and protection signals, and sends the engine parameters, including fault messages, to the avionics.

• READ MORE: Daher Weaves Sustainability Into Kodiak 900 and TBM 960

The 960 helps the pilot leverage this stream of more than 100 data points through the DCTU—data collection and transmission unit—that records information from the FADEC and the Garmin integrated avionics unit (GIA), storing the data in a non-volatile memory resident onboard. The DCTU safeguards the data, and once the airplane is on the ground at a low power setting, the airplane connects via a cellular network. When the engine shuts down, the data transfers to a ground station for trend monitoring and to stay on top of any maintenance required. The DCTU, automated start, and the EPECS governing the engine within tight parameters—like a 1,925 prop rpm limit at max power settings—leads to the 5,000 hour TBO.

Line Up…No More Waiting

For our first flight, I met on the approach end of Runway 5 at Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL) with Luy and Philippe de Segovia, director of TBM product marketing. When it was finally our turn to taxi out, I thought back to those takeoffs I’d monitored on the ferry mission. I lined up, brought the throttle up, and let the AT take it from the midpoint of its throw. After less than 3,000 feet of ground roll in the hot sun and a little back pressure on the yoke, I let the speed climb to 124 kias—right on target.

• READ MORE: Daher Ramps Up TBM Production With 20th Delivery

We climbed to 10,500 feet over central Florida and soon sped out of Lakeland’s saturated airspace. The airspeed came up to about 220 kias—with plenty of green arc still to go on the PFD’s airspeed tape—there’s no yellow arc, only the red bar at 271 knots. Maneuvering speed is a healthy 160 knots, so we slowed below that figure before putting the 960 through steep turns and a stall series. I witnessed no bad habits, just a clean honest break in an unaccelerated stall. The control harmony is clearly one reason TBM pilots become loyal.

We stopped at Airglades Airport (2IS) for a series of three landings and taxi-backs to give me a feel for the 960—with plenty of space on the nearly 6,000-foot-long runway. I found it straightforward to stay on target approach speeds, coming over the fence while bleeding off from 85 knots. It felt facile even on my first try to use less than half of the runway length. We took off for Pompano Beach (KPMP), made an RNAV approach to Runway 13, touched down, and called it a day.

After a few days, fresh and ready to fly our photo mission, the sweet spot I sought on the controls clicked. I used the trim wheel for fine-tuning during station keeping and loved that balance. Later in the day, I had the opportunity to fly again with Luy in an early model TBM 700. While flying through a series of maneuvers, I felt subtle differences in pitch, a bit more in roll, but the same stately sense in control feel overall. With the addition of the 2-foot-tall winglets that started on the 900, the improvements in handling between the early and later models made sense.

Cabin & Cost Updates

The Prestige-branded interior takes advantage of the aircraft’s digital-forward view with an improved environmental control system and electrically dimmable windows. Upgraded ergonomic seats, USB-A and USB-C power ports, and cupholders round out the new amenities for passengers. Overhead spot LED lighting taps to illuminate and dims in three steps with subsequent taps, while strip lighting provides ambience.

Because the 960 is still new, we reviewed Conklin & de Decker for operating cost data on the 940, which will run similarly—after nudging up the acquisition cost from $4.5 million to $4.8 million for the 2022 production run and $5 million for 2023 positions. With an annual cost of just under $500,000 and a fixed cost of just under $200,000, the variable hourly cost on a 940 runs $975 per hour—assuming a fuel cost of $4.63 per gallon for jet-A, which is low considering the current market.

The 960 comes out a little more expensive than its turboprop single competitors in this area, but the latest upgrade in the TBM series draws our affection because of its speed, added safety features, nimble handling—and, yes, its stylish good looks.

Daher TBM 960 Specifications

This article was first published in the Q3 2022 edition of FLYING Magazine.

The post We Fly: Daher TBM 960 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

After nearly two decades of ups and downs, Bend, Oregon-based Epic Aircraft is celebrating the biggest achievement of the company’s history–the certification of its E1000 single-engine turboprop. The coveted paperwork for the sleek, speedy airplane was signed off yesterday by Ron Landes, Manager of the FAA’s Seattle Aircraft Certification Office (ACO).

The Epic E1000 is propelled by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-76A, producing 1,200 horsepower. The powerful engine brings the E1000 to a top cruise speed of 325 knots, nearly on par with that of Daher’s TBM 900-series airplanes; however, the cabin is significantly longer, wider and taller than its French competitor’s.

While the ultimate goal was always to certify the airplane, Epic Aircraft had a rather successful experimental production run, with more than 50 Epics LTs built and flown. After it was found that the original company leader, Rick Schrameck, had embezzled money from the company, Epic shuttered its doors about 10 years ago. But one of the LT owners, entrepreneur and passionate aviator Doug King, took over as CEO and has put his full dedication into the success of the company, made possible by financial backing from a Russian investor.

Now that Epic has overcome its biggest hurdle, the company can focus on delivering airplanes to a list of owners who have patiently been waiting for their airplanes. The first E1000 delivery is expected before the end of the year.

The post Epic Aircraft Achieves Certification for E1000 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.