Daher targets mid-2027 for first US-assembled TBM turboprop, pushes for 100-aircraft annual goal
Company also still aims next summer to disclose progress on ‘more-electric’ aircraft
French airframer Daher Aircraft expects next summer to roll the first US-assembled TBM-series turboprop out of its new Florida manufacturing facility, kicking off a new growth phase.
The company also next year aims to disclose more detail about its electric aviation ambitions, the aircraft manufacturer’s chief executive Nicholas Chabbert said during a pre-NBAA-BACE briefing on 19 October.
“Probably in August we’ll have the first completed aircraft that will roll out” of the manufacturing site in Stuart on Florida’s east coast, Chabbert says. “We are on time to start [aircraft production] operations sometime in mid-2027.”
Daher aims for the site eventually to produce up to 30 aircraft annually, supplementing its existing TBM production plant in Tarbes, France, he adds. The company acquired the Florida facility, which also supplies components to Boeing and Gulfstream, in 2022 from Triumph Group.
Daher is meanwhile working to land more sales of Kodiaks, talking up the 100- and 900-series as ideal utilitarian types for special-mission government work. It acquired Kodiak, which makes the models in Sandpoint, Idaho, from the company’s founders in 2019.
“We started out really just doing surveillance and it’s grown into a government focus,” says Daher senior director of multi-missions and business development Paul Carelli. “Intelligence is always a growing area.”
Daher and its partners can outfit special-mission Kodiaks with equipment including multiple communications systems, lidar and radar.
Much of Daher’s ambitions involve adding aircraft production at its new Stuart plant.
“We are trying to reach the threshold of 100 [aircraft] altogether, across Kodiak and TBMs,” says Chabbert.
The Tarbes site can turn out about 60 TBMs annually and Daher aims to complete about 30 Kodiaks yearly. Another 30 TBMs produced in Stuart will exceed the goal, says Chabbert.
Both TBMs and Kodiaks are powered by single Pratt & Whitney PT6 turboprops.
The company is now hiring workers in Stuart and expects some will travel to Tarbes in the next few weeks to begin training.
Daher in 2025 delivered 76 aircraft, down from 82 in 2024, including 51 TBM 960s and 25 Kodiaks. It recently expanded the TBM line with the new 980, revealed in January, and has now delivered 42 of those.
Chabbert sees opportunity for longer-term expansion in Florida and expects Kodiaks will eventually be made there – but not anytime soon. “I’m not going to see it,” he says.
Earlier this year, Chabbert said Daher in 2027 will disclose more about its efforts to develop electric aircraft technology.
The CEO addressed that work on 19 October.
“We are really ready for Le Bourget for some announcements,” he says, referencing the Paris air show. “We’ll have a more-electric aircraft on the horizon.”
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