Daher welcomes the order of 4 TBM 940s by the DGA Flight tests

Daher welcomes the announcement by the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces of a framework agreement for the acquisition of 4 TBM 940s and associated services.  These TBM 940s will be delivered from summer 2021 and will replace DGA Flight Tests (DGA EV) TBM 700s.Commissioned in 1992, these TBM 700s are used daily to support flight tests (safety support aircraft, breastplate, support for setting up tests and receptions outside DGA EV sites, etc.). These ordered TBM 940s will be modified by Daher to incorporate new equipment to meet training and testing needs with the ability to carry a wide variety of payloads under each wing.

"We would like to thank the French Ministry of the Armed Forces for its confidence in this contract which will modernize the DGA Flight Test fleet and thus support its development programs for the defense systems of the future", commented Didier Kayat, Director General of Daher group. “For our industry and our teams, this is a strong sign, partly offsetting the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected our sector. "

The TBM range of aircraft is mainly known for export, with 85% of its deliveries in North America. For this program, Daher is structuring a supply chain of several dozen suppliers in France upstream of its final assembly line, located at its Tarbes site, which employs around 1,500 people. Drawing on this rare expertise in the aircraft industry, Daher is also participating in large-scale innovation projects such as EcopulseTM, a technological demonstrator intended to validate the low-carbon technologies of the next generations of commercial aircraft. The latest in the range of planes designed and produced in Tarbes, the TBM 940 is a six-seater, pressurized cabin and fully configurable aircraft that reaches a maximum cruising speed of 330 KTAS and a maximum range of 1,730 NM. It provides a significant improvement in performance and a 10% gain in fuel efficiency compared to its predecessor, the TBM 700 currently used by the armed forces. Highly automated, it is equipped with automatic anti-icing protection and an autothrottle system. The TBM 940 is also one of the first aircraft in the world to have an automatic emergency landing system.