Socata TBM850 Specs and Description

Background/History

The TBM-700 first flew in 1988. French certification followed in 1990. The TBM-700 was designed together with Mooney, but Mooney shortly withdrew from the project just prior to certification. Socata then designed a more powerful upgrade of the company’s very popular TBM-700 series of single engine turboprops. The TBM-850 obtains a higher cruising speed close to that of light business jets. Socata aims to market the TBM-850 as a viable alternative to the very light jet craze. This provoked the slogan “Jet Performance at Turboprop Economy.”

Power

The TBM-850 is equipped with a Pratt and Whitney Canada PT6A-66D turboprop engine delivering 1,825shp and flat-rated to 850 maximum continuous shaft horsepower with flaps retracted and RVSM. The inspection interval for the engine is 3,000 hours.

Avionics

The TBM-850, like the TBM-700, is a very complete aircraft in its standard configuration. Beginning in 2008 the 850 is shipped with the Garmin 1000 all glass flight deck . Pilots can chose XM weather or the Bendix/King system to deliver weather information to the cockpit. Everything else the pilot needs, including the equipment for Reduced Vertical Seperation Minimums (RVSM) to fly above 28,000 feet, is available.

Design Features

The Socata TBM-850 is a medium range, single engine turboprop business aircraft configured in a low wing conventional tail design with elctro-hydraulically actuated fully retractable single-wheeled tricycle landing gear. The long-span fowler flaps cover most of the trailing edge of the wing, leaving only a little room for ailerons. To augment the authority of the small ailerons the TBM-850 has roll spoilers that extend after the aileron travels several degrees up to initiate the bank.

Accomodations

The Socata TBM-850 is a small sized business aircraft configued for four to six passengers arranged in a club layout. Two baggage compartments can accomodate 297 pounds of baggage. One is located aft of the cabin (pressurized), the other is in the rear of the fuselage section (non-pressurized). A large access door is standard, which allows easier access to the pressurized baggage compartment in the cargo configuration. The cabin height is 4 feet along the aisle, width is 3 feet 11 inches, and length is 13 feet 3 inches. Early aircraft were fitted with a Honeywell Aerospace Secan air conditioning system which, beginning with s.n. 434, was replaced with a more powerful and reliable Liebherr system. The new system has seperate thermostats for cabin and cockpit.