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SOCATA (later EADS Socata and DAHER-SOCATA) was a French producer of
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...
aircraft propelled by
piston engine A reciprocating engine, more often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more Reciprocating motion, reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a Circular motion, rotating motion. This article ...
s and
turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...
s, including business planes, small personal or training aircraft, as well as the production of aircraft structures for other manufacturers such as
Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...
,
Dassault Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS (; also GIM Dassault or Dassault Group) is a French corporate group established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, later led by his so ...
,
Embraer Embraer S.A. () is a Brazilian multinational aerospace corporation. It develops and manufactures aircraft and aviation systems, and provides leasing, equipment, and technical support services. Embraer is the third largest producer of civil air ...
,
Eurocopter Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter S.A., trade name, trading as Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturer, helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopte ...
and
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
. The company had its headquarters, along with much of its production capabilities, located in
Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon language, Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of southwestern France. It is ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. During 1966, the French aircraft manufacturer
Morane-Saulnier Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier was a French aircraft manufacturing company formed in October 1911 by Raymond Saulnier and the Morane brothers, Léon and Robert. The company was taken over and diversified in the 1960s. History Model development ...
changed its name to SOCATA (which is an
abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...
for ''Société de Construction d'Avions de Tourisme et d'Affaires'', French for "Company for the construction of aircraft for tourism and business") following its acquisition by
Sud Aviation Sud Aviation (, 'Southern Aviation') was a French state-owned aircraft manufacturer, originating in the merger of Sud-Est ( SNCASE, or ''Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-est'') and Sud-Ouest ( SNCASO or ''Société nat ...
. During 2000, SOCATA became a wholly owned
subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...
of the multinational aerospace conglomerate
EADS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...
; shortly thereafter, the business was rebranded as ''EADS SOCATA''. On 3 November 2008, EADS and French technology business
DAHER Daher (also stylized as DAHER) is a French industrial conglomerate. It is operational across the aerospace, defence, nuclear, and automotive industrial sectors in the fields of manufacturing, services, and transport. It was founded in 1863 ...
announced that they had reached a final agreement for DAHER to acquire a 70% stake in EADS SOCATA. In June 2014, DAHER announced that it had acquired the remaining 30% of EADS SOCATA from
Airbus Group Airbus Group, Inc. (formerly EADS North America) represents the North American activities of European multinational aerospace company Airbus. Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, this American arm of the company participates in U.S. Department ...
(formerly EADS). During March 2015, the SOCATA name fell out of use, the company's name having been changed to just ''Daher'' at this time as part of a rebranding to align the division with its parent company.


History

The history of SOCATA can be traced back to the founding of the French aircraft manufacturer
Morane-Saulnier Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier was a French aircraft manufacturing company formed in October 1911 by Raymond Saulnier and the Morane brothers, Léon and Robert. The company was taken over and diversified in the 1960s. History Model development ...
in 1911. During 1966, Morane-Saulnier changed its name to SOCATA (which is an
abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...
for ''Societe de Construction d'Avions de Tourisme et d'Affaires'', French for "Company for the construction of aircraft for tourism and business") following the company's acquisition by the state-owned aerospace interest
Sud Aviation Sud Aviation (, 'Southern Aviation') was a French state-owned aircraft manufacturer, originating in the merger of Sud-Est ( SNCASE, or ''Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-est'') and Sud-Ouest ( SNCASO or ''Société nat ...
. During this period of ownership, SOCATA focused its activities on
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...
, manufacturing thousands of light aircraft throughout the latter half of the 20th century. One of the company's more popular products was the Rallye family of general aircraft. During 1979, SOCATA decided to reorganise and rebrand much of its production programmes, one of the results of which being the renaming of the various models of Rallye series, each one receiving an individual, "more Gallic" name.Rallye History
. ''Fly Rallye''. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
During the 1980s, the Rallye was gradually superseded and phased out of production in France by the newer
Socata TB The Socata TB is a series of light single-engine piston aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Daher-Socata, SOCATA. The letters TB within the designation stand for Tarbes, the French city where the aircraft series is manu ...
series. During December 1984, the final Rallye of approximately 3,300 aircraft,Donald 1994, p. 804. an armed R235 Guerrier model, was delivered.Taylor 1988, p. 84. However, SOCATA's decision to terminate production in France was not the end of all manufacturing activity. During the 1970s, SOCATA had sold a license for the production of the Rallye 100ST model to the Polish State aviation company
PZL PZL, may refer to: Places * PZL, an IATA airport code for Phinda Airfield in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa * PZL, a location code for the Złotów County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, in the system of the vehicle registration plates of Polan ...
, which led to the aircraft being independently constructed in its facilities in
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
as the ''PZL Koliber'' (''Humming Bird''). On 18 April 1978, the first PZL-built aircraft performed its maiden flight and, during the following year, quantity production of the Koliber commenced.Taylor 1988, p. 193. During the mid-1970s, SOCATA commenced work on what would become the TB family of general aircraft; a key ambition of this new product line was to entirely replace the firm's existing and highly successful Rallye series. As intended, throughout 1979, production of the Rallye family was drawn down as production of the new family ramped up; the initial entry models of which were designated as the ''TB-9 Tampico'' and the ''TB-10 Tobago''.Moxon 20 July 1993, p. 33. On 18 December 1980, an improved model of the aircraft, designated as the ''TB20'', was awarded its
type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...
by the French aviation authorities. During March 1981, the first delivery of a production TB20 was completed to a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
customer. Various improved models of the TB series were subsequently developed. SOCATA adopted a straightforward assembly philosophy at its final assembly facility in Tarbes, choosing to only complete a given aircraft after having already received an order for it. Basic airframes would be produced in advance and finished upon order, allowing for customer-specified modifications and optional equipment to be installed as per their demands. While the type was completed upon a single assembly line at the facility, all models, low and top end alike, were finished upon the same line. At the start of 1993, SOCATA was manufacturing around 12 aircraft of the TB series per month, by the middle of the year, this had dipped to roughly 8 aircraft per month. During the 1980s, SOCATA, having identified a vacant market position for a purpose-built optimised single-engine aircraft capable of fast personal transport and light cargo duties, became interested in the piston-powered
Mooney 301 The Mooney 301 was a prototype aircraft created by American manufacturer Mooney Aircraft Company in 1983. It was a low-wing, single-engine, six-place monoplane with retractable landing gear and a pressurized fuselage. The Mooney 301 design team w ...
light aircraft of the
Mooney Airplane Company The Mooney International Corporation (formerly Mooney Aviation Company, Inc. and the Mooney Aircraft Company) is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Kerrville, Texas, United States. It manufactures single-engined piston-powered general ...
.Simpson, Rob. "TBM 850: EADS Socata challenges the Very Light Jets". ''
Air International ''AIR International'' is a British aviation magazine covering current defence aerospace and civil aviation topics. It has been in publication since 1971 and is currently published by Key Publishing Ltd. History and profile The magazine was fir ...
'', February 2006, Vol 70 No 2, pp. 28–31. /, p. 28-29.
Accordingly, talks commenced between Mooney and SOCATA on the subject of producing a
turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...
-powered derivative of the 301. The product that emerged from these discussions was a new design, referred to as the ''TBM 700'', which was considerably heavier than the original 301 while provisioned with more than twice the available power. The prefix of the designation, ''TBM'', originated from the initials "TB", which stands for
Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon language, Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of southwestern France. It is ...
, the French city in which SOCATA is located, while the "M" stands for Mooney. At the time of its conception, while several aviation companies had studied or were otherwise considering the development of such an aircraft, the envisioned TBM 700 was the first high-performance single-engine passenger/cargo aircraft to enter production. From the onset, key performance criteria were established, demanding a high level of reliability while also being capable of an unequalled speed/altitude combination amongst the TBM 700 other single-engined peers. Consequently, during June 1987, a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
, named ''TBM International'', was established with the aim of completing development of the TBM 700 design and to perform the manufacture of the new aircraft; the ownership of the joint venture was divided between Mooney and SOCATA's then parent company,
Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...
. Taylor, John W. R. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988–89''. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1988. A pair of separate production lines for the TBM 700 were planned, one located at Mooney's facility in Kerrville, Texas, which was intended to cater to the American market, and the other based at SOCATA's factory in Tarbes, which was set to produce aircraft for customers throughout the rest of the world. However, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mooney was afflicted by persistent fiscal shortfalls; consequently, in May 1991, Mooney chose to withdraw from participation in the joint venture, leaving SOCATA as the primary company involved in the programme. On 14 July 1988, the first TBM 700 prototype conducted the type's
maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. In the early days of aviation it could be dange ...
. Flight testing proved that virtually all of the established goals of the design had been achieved, leading to quick progress towards production. On 31 January 1990,
type certification A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...
was received from French authorities; it was followed by the awarding of US
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
(FAA) certification on 28 August 1990. During early 1990, the first delivery of a TBM 700 occurred; the first production batch of 50 aircraft were sold out almost instantly. Early feedback received from operators and pilots was typically positive about the capabilities of the new aircraft, often praising its speed and generous power margins amongst other attributes. According to aerospace publication ''
Flying Flying may refer to: * Flight, the process of flying * Aviation, the creation and operation of aircraft Music Albums * '' Flying (Cody Fry album)'', 2017 * ''Flying'' (Grammatrain album), 1997 * ''Flying'' (Jonathan Fagerlund album), 2008 * ...
'', while the TBM 700 had rapidly proved popular and a good aircraft on its own merits, the services and support facilities SOCATA provided were an initial point of weakness. SOCATA, recognising the critical importance of an effective support infrastructure, invested heavily in improving worldwide support for the type; instead of being solely reliant upon third parties and partnership arrangements with other companies, the firm developed their own facilities. SOCATA opened its own service center in
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, as well as establishing a network of
distributor A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design ...
s capable of both sales and services for the TBM 700. Consequently, during the late 1990s, sales of the type within the
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
n market rose dramatically. During 2000, SOCATA became a wholly owned
subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...
of the multinational aerospace conglomerate
EADS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...
; shortly thereafter, the business was rebranded as ''EADS SOCATA''. On 27 June 2008, EADS announced its intention to sell a controlling interest in EADS SOCATA to French technology business
DAHER Daher (also stylized as DAHER) is a French industrial conglomerate. It is operational across the aerospace, defence, nuclear, and automotive industrial sectors in the fields of manufacturing, services, and transport. It was founded in 1863 ...
, but would retain a minority stake in the company. On 3 November 2008, EADS and DAHER announced that they had reached a final agreement for DAHER to acquire a 70% stake in EADS SOCATA. On 7 January 2009, DAHER confirmed its acquisition of a majority 70% stake in SOCATA. During late 2009, it was announced that EADS SOCATA had finalised an agreement with a private company, JetSet International Ltd, for the sale of the
type certificate A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...
, tooling, components, engineering plans and drawings for the
Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris The Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris is a French four-seat jet trainer and liaison aircraft designed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier. The Paris was based upon an earlier proposed trainer aircraft, the Morane-Saulnier MS.755 Fleuret, MS.755 Fle ...
, a jet-powered
business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...
developed by SOCATA's predecessor. The firm had separately purchased in excess of 30 retired MS760s from the French and Argentinian governments; JetSet International Ltd reportedly had ambitions to refurbish these existing airframes and to install current-generation jet engines and avionics for the purpose of selling them on to operators for approximately $550,000. In June 2014,
Daher Daher (also stylized as DAHER) is a French industrial conglomerate. It is operational across the aerospace, defence, nuclear, and automotive industrial sectors in the fields of manufacturing, services, and transport. It was founded in 1863 ...
announced that it had acquired the remaining 30% of EADS SOCATA from
Airbus Group Airbus Group, Inc. (formerly EADS North America) represents the North American activities of European multinational aerospace company Airbus. Headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, this American arm of the company participates in U.S. Department ...
(formerly EADS), making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. During March 2015, use of the SOCATA name was formally discontinued, the division having been rebranded as just ''Daher'' to more closely align itself with its new parent company.


Products

* Socata Horizon * Rallye series * ST 10 Diplomate * TB 30 Epsilon * TB 9 Tampico GT * TB 10 Tobago GT * TB 200 Tobago XL GT * TB 20 Trinidad GT * TB 21 Trinidad TC GT * TBM 700/850/900/910/930 ;Aircraft that never entered production: * TB 31 Omega * TB 360 Tangara


References


Citations


Bibliography

* Donald, David (editor). ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Leicester, UK: Blitz, 1997. . * Moxon, Julian
"Private Preparations."
''Flight International'', 20 July 1993. pp. 32–35. * Taylor, John W. R. (editor). ''Jane's All the Worlds Aircraft 1988–89''. Coulsdon, Surrey, UK: Jane's Information Group, 1988. .


External links

* {{Portalbar, France, Companies, Aviation Multinational aircraft manufacturers Aircraft manufacturers of France Aircraft component manufacturers of France Companies based in Occitania (administrative region) French companies established in 1966