Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

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Mark Huber

Daher has delivered the 900th TBM single-engine turboprop—30 years after the inaugural flight of the first TBM 700. Aircraft number 900, a TBM 930, S/N 1239, was delivered last week to Thomas Solano in Jacksonville, Florida, a repeat customer. The first TBM flew on July 14, 1988.

 


Last year, Daher delivered fifty-seven 900-series TBMs and it has delivered 22 through June 18 this year. Of the total TBMs delivered, 693 have been to North America. Since 2014, 261 TBMs have been ordered and 238 have been delivered.

 


Daher Aircraft senior vice president Nicolas Chabbert said the company continues to make small but significant improvements to 900-series TBMs, including recent additions of backlit cockpits, heated seats, and a propeller extended warranty. Earlier this month, Daher rolled out Version 2 of its “Me and My TBM" app for aircraft operators that captures all onboard information via iPhone or iPad, “not in real time yet, but pretty close,” Chabbert said. “As soon as you step off of the aircraft all of the information is sent to the servers, which is pushed to your iPhone or iPad. Twenty-five aircraft are equipped today.”

 


The new version of the app allows up to 400 TBM owners to connect with each other and compare speeds and other records while accumulating points. “You can measure yourself to the community,” Chabbert said, who used the app personally to accumulate 996 points while ferrying a TBM display aircraft to Oshkosh this year. Any TBM owner who accumulates 500 points or more in a single month will receive a free Bad Elf Wombat box to speed the loading of avionics data from onboard Garmin systems via SD cards.&nbsp;

 


Chabbert envisions using the data not only to enhance product support, but also to provide TBM owners with concierge-level services such as the seamless payment of airport fees and making hotel and rental car reservations. “We are still learning every day on what we want to draw from the data. Like many in aviation, our support is reactive. With data, we can be proactive. It’s very different. We still have to learn what it means to be proactive. We are just scratching the surface right now,” he said.&nbsp;

 


Daher CEO Didier Kayat said an established outpost in California’s Silicon Valley will better speed the application of technology to the company overall, including TBM. While the company is looking to the future, he said it continues to embrace its past. Kayat said Daher is building another airworthy WWI-era Morane Saulnier Type L Parasol replica, similar to the one it brought to AirVenture last year.&nbsp;

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