Morane-Saulnier’s heir

SOCATA’s bloodline runs back to the dawn of French aviation. Morane-Saulnier, founded in 1911, built the monoplanes in which Roland Garros set an altitude record and made the first crossing of the Mediterranean. By the 1960s the company was bankrupt, and in 1966 the state-owned Sud Aviation bought it and renamed it the Société de Construction d’Avions de Tourisme et d’Affaires — the company for building tourism and business aircraft. The mission was in the name: no more fighters, just light aircraft for flying clubs and private owners.

Three thousand Rallyes

SOCATA inherited the Rallye, a sturdy, slow-flying tourer whose prototype had flown on 10 June 1959. Its leading-edge slats made it hard to stall and easy to love, and SOCATA built version after version, renaming them in 1979 with what were described as more Gallic names. When the last one, an armed R235 Guerrier, was delivered in December 1984, the production run stood at about 3,300 aircraft. Even then the Rallye did not die: Poland’s PZL built it under licence as the Koliber, the hummingbird, from 1979.

The Caribbean planes

The Rallye’s replacement was designed in the mid-1970s. The TB letters stood for Tarbes, and the models took island names — Tampico, Tobago, Trinidad — so owners nicknamed them the Caribbean planes, though few ever flew there. The first prototype flew on 23 September 1977 and was lost in spin testing that December. Certification followed in April 1979. Roomy and well finished, the TBs became favourites of flying schools: by about 1993, 520 had gone to 24 schools worldwide. From the TB 10 grew the TB 30 Epsilon, chosen in 1979 as the French Air Force’s basic trainer; 150 were ordered.

Tarbes plus Mooney

SOCATA’s boldest move came through America. In the 1980s it spotted an empty niche: a fast, pressurised single-engine turboprop. It began talks with Mooney about its piston 301 prototype, and in June 1987 Mooney and SOCATA’s parent Aérospatiale formed TBM International — TB for Tarbes, M for Mooney. The TBM 700 flew on 14 July 1988, Bastille Day. Mooney’s money troubles led it to quit in May 1991, leaving the aircraft to Tarbes. The first production batch of 50 sold out almost at once; it was the first high-performance single-engine turboprop to enter production.

Daher takes over

Ownership changed with French aerospace itself: Aérospatiale from 1970, then EADS in 2000, when the firm became EADS Socata. In January 2009 the logistics and engineering group Daher took a 70 per cent stake, adding Airbus structures work such as A350 landing-gear doors, and bought the remaining 30 per cent in June 2014. On 25 February 2015 Daher-Socata changed its name to Daher, and the SOCATA name disappeared. The TBM did not: as the TBM 900, 940 and 960, it reached 1,294 deliveries by the end of 2025.

מפעלים

• Tarbes works · Louey, south of Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrénées — Headquarters and final assembly of Rallye, TB and TBM

אֲנָשִׁים

• Roland Garros · Morane-Saulnier pilot — Set records in Morane-Saulnier monoplanes, part of SOCATA’s heritage
• Yves Gardan · designer — Designed the GY-80 Horizon, ancestor of the ST 10 Diplomate

שיאים וראשונות

• TBM 700 was the first high-performance single-engine passenger/cargo turboprop to enter production, 1990