Press Release

Issued by Daher Aerospace.

April 24, 2013

At the AERO show today, Daher-Socata delivered a new 2013 model year TBM 850 Elite aircraft to Rheinland Air Service (RAS), its TBM distributor and service center operator for Austria and Germany.

The aircraft is fitted with the 2013 Elite special package, featuring a deluxe Black Onyx leather interior with a storage cabinet, carbon-fiber fittings, and 14 Volt DC power plugs. Other features include Garmin's Synthetic Vision System dynamic terrain imaging, the Chartview electronic chart database, and the GSR 56 Iridium satellite datalink transceiver for global connectivity – providing on-demand weather information and text/voice communications. Additional safety options in the 2013 Elite package are a GPS-linked emergency locator transmitter, and a pulsed light system that alternately flashes the landing, taxi and recognition lights 45 times-per-minute to increase the aircraft's visibility.

Daher-Socata's extended exclusive maintenance program, which lowers scheduled maintenance costs for five years or 1,000 hours, is also included. For 2013, Daher-Socata has introduced a New Maintenance Program (NMP), with recommended maintenance intervals of 200 hours (instead of the previous 100 hours) or 12 months – whichever occurs first. The NMP is available on new aircraft, while previously-delivered TBM 850 can be transitioned to the NMP during their annual inspection. The year-long program is completed by the CAMP tracking system, which enables owners to easily follow an aircraft's maintenance.

"We salute the commercial efforts of our distributor, Rheinland Air Service, whose team has been very active since last year's AERO show. Since then, RAS has sold two TBM 850 Elite and ordered two more for this year,” explained Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of Daher-Socata's airplane division. “This demonstrates the strong market interest in our new version with its convertible cabin, along with enhancements to the aircraft's comprehensive maintenance program – all of which increases the already high value of our TBM 850 aircraft for both owners and operators."

Daher-Socata developed the TBM 850 Elite to offer owners the unique capability of tailoring the passenger cabin to meet their changing needs. Its middle seats can be oriented in a forward-facing position, while the rear seats are removable. In just 30 minutes, the TBM 850 Elite can be reconfigured in a four-seat cabin – tripling the luggage storage capacity, while doubling the maximum luggage weight.

"We thank Daher-Socata for the TBM 850 we took delivery of today. It is our third Elite model, the first two having been sold to customers,” said Johannes Graf von Schaesberg, ceo of RAS. “This TBM 850 will be used as a demonstrator plane, but we expect to sell it very quickly because of the strong demand. A fourth Elite is already on order for one of our customers” he added.