page_title: SOCATA
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: SOCATA / History
caption_attribution_description: Socata TB-9
context_page_description: SOCATA was a French producer of general aviation aircraft propelled by piston engines and turboprops, including business planes, small personal or training aircraft, as well as the production of aircraft structures for other manufacturers such as Airbus, Dassault, Embraer, Eurocopter and Lockheed Martin. The company had its headquarters, along with much of its production capabilities, located in Tarbes, France.
  During 1966, the French aircraft manufacturer Morane-Saulnier changed its name to SOCATA following its acquisition by Sud Aviation. During 2000, SOCATA became a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational aerospace conglomerate EADS; shortly thereafter, the business was rebranded as EADS SOCATA. On 3 November 2008, EADS and French technology business DAHER 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. 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.
context_section_description: The history of SOCATA can be traced back to the founding of the French aircraft manufacturer Morane-Saulnier in 1911. During 1966, Morane-Saulnier changed its name to SOCATA (which is an abbreviation 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. During this period of ownership, SOCATA focused its activities on general aviation, 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. During the 1980s, the Rallye was gradually superseded and phased out of production in France by the newer Socata TB series. During December 1984, the final Rallye of approximately 3,300 aircraft, an armed R235 Guerrier model, was delivered. 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, which led to the aircraft being independently constructed in its facilities in Warsaw 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.
  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. On 18 December 1980, an improved model of the aircraft, designated as the TB20, was awarded its type certification by the French aviation authorities. During Match 1981, the first delivery of a production TB20 was completed to a German 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 advanced 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 light aircraft of the Mooney Airplane Company. Accordingly, talks commenced between Mooney and SOCATA on the subject of producing a turboprop-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, 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
caption: Socata TB9 Tampico
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