Overview
Socata was the French light-aircraft manufacturer behind the TB family of piston singles and the original TBM single-engine turboprop. Founded in 1966 at Tarbes as the general-aviation arm of Sud-Aviation, later Aérospatiale, it built the Rallye and then the TB-9 Tampico, TB-10 Tobago, and TB-20 Trinidad tourers, and co-developed the TBM 700 with Mooney. The firm became EADS Socata and was then acquired by the Daher group, which absorbed it fully by 2011 and now markets the turboprop line as Daher; the type certificate for the TB series is today held by Daher Aircraft SAS.
Heritage
Socata, short for Société de Construction d’Avions de Tourisme et d’Affaires, was formed in 1966 to consolidate Sud-Aviation’s light-aircraft business. Its first volume product was the Rallye, a fixed-gear utility single. In the late 1970s it launched the TB family, designed around a wide cabin and a common low-wing airframe: the 160 hp TB-9 Tampico, the 180 hp TB-10 Tobago, and the 250 hp TB-20 Trinidad, joined by the turbocharged TB-21. In 1990 it certified the TBM 700, a pressurized single-engine turboprop developed jointly with Mooney, the partnership that gave the type the M in its TBM designation. EADS held the company through the 2000s before the Daher group took a controlling stake in 2009 and full ownership by 2011, ending the piston line and carrying the TBM forward.
Design Signature
Socata’s piston singles were known for cabin width and comfort. The TB family shared a broad, square-sided fuselage with a cabin near 50 inches across and large upward-opening doors, styled inside like a touring car, in a class of aircraft usually built to narrower proportions. The airframes were all-metal and low-wing, fixed-gear except for the retractable Trinidad, tuned for stable handling and instrument work rather than outright speed. The TBM 700 carried the same comfort-first philosophy into the turboprop class, pairing a pressurized cabin with jet-like cruise on a single Pratt & Whitney PT6A.
For Owners
The piston TB types are out of production, but the fleet remains supported: the type certificate now sits with Daher Aircraft SAS, and the Lycoming O-360 and IO-540 engines they use are mainstream and widely serviced. The main ownership consideration is the one common to any imported low-volume type: a smaller US fleet and a thinner parts network than a comparable Cessna or Piper. Identify a shop familiar with the type before purchase. Daher now holds and continues the line; the current TBM 850 through 960 turboprops and the Kodiak utility series are sold under Daher.