In 1990, Socata certified with the FAA and the French DGAC (now EASA) the first, fully-pressurized, single-engine, turboprop aircraft in the world, the TBM 700A. The TBM 700 airframe design incorporated a variety of aluminum and steel alloys, including titanium, as well as advanced composite materials that come together in an airframe of unmatched structural strength and durability at the lowest possible weight at an affordable cost. Our design engineers employed fail-safe design techniques on the TBM airframe including the use of multiple load paths, a crack-stopper band and a minimum number of smaller access panels to maximize structural life and sub-system reliability, as well as to minimize repair-cycle times.

In 1992 to replace the obsolescent Morane MS 760 Paris Jet, EADS Socata began an on-schedule and on-budget delivery of TBM 700A model aircraft to the French Air Force and French Army Aviation. According to feedback from French military pilots, the TBM is: «simple to master, a dream to fly and have superior performance characteristics across the entire flight envelope».(...)