Fred George, Senior Editor at Aviation Week, released his report on Daher-Socata’s new TBM 900 today. As we have reported in the past, the TBM is a beautiful piece of machinery and a triumph of engineering. It also comes factory equipped with a Hartzell 5-blade composite propeller, and the entire Hartzell team takes considerable pride in that fact. Our ASC-II composite aircraft propellers have been making an impact on the industry since we first introduced them in 2006, but seeing them installed on the world’s fastest civil single-engine turboprop is incredible.
Fred noted that the new composite propeller was among the most instantly observable changes between the design of the TBM 850 and the TBM 900, which make the aircraft faster and less noisy. In flight, Aviation Week’s aircraft evaluation expert found the cabin to be noticeably quieter. But, this excerpt from the article is what really gave our engineering team a sense of pride:
“The Hartzell five-blade incorporates the latest 3-D aero computer modeling, one that analyzes the airflow of the prop around the nose of the aircraft. Socata officials say they looked closely at an advanced prop from MT-Propeller but opted for the Hartzell because the aircraft cruises 3 to 5 kt faster.”
Again, we thank Daher-Socata for choosing our propeller for their incredible aircraft. Hartzell’s staff is a tight-knit community of engineers and craftsmen, but above all else we are pilots. Working alongside Socata to produce a triumph on the magnitude of the TBM 900 has been an incredible experience. Thank you also to Fred George. His entire report can be read here.