Turboprops

On the heels of Piper’s introduction of the Meridian M500 earlier this year, the company on Monday unveiled two additional models to its M-class lineup, the M350 and the Garmin G3000-equipped M600, at an event attended by hundreds of customers and dealers. In addition to its touchscreen G3000 avionics, the big news with the M600 […]

Pilatus Aircraft, based in Stans, Switzerland, announced it had a record year for sales revenues in 2014. With revenues of CHF 1.174 billion (more than $1.2 billion), the company saw a 16 percent jump over 2013, which was also a strong year. Pilatus delivered 127 airplanes last year, 15 more than the previous year. The […]

Piper announced the latest iteration of its Meridian turboprop single, which it now calls the M500. I’ll admit up front that my initial reaction upon hearing the news was this: Whenever a company makes a name change to a product and that new name includes a number (in this case, the number 500) I have […]

Textron Aviation is continuing the integration of its Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker aircraft product lines. Most recently, the Kansas-based mega company has started adding King Air turboprop capabilities to its formerly Citation-focused service centers. The first centers to achieve FAA authorization for King Air services are Sacramento, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Paris, France. These company-owned […]

A Japanese conglomerate has inked an agreement to purchase Quest Aircraft, maker of the Kodiak single-engine turboprop, with a goal of greatly increased production. Setouchi Holdings plans to retain Quest’s management team and continue building airplanes in Sandpoint, Idaho, as it supplies the cash to allow the manufacturer to hire workers and increase manufacturing capacity. […]

Quest Aircraft delivered 30 Kodiak turboprop singles last year, posting its strongest year since certifying the utility airplane in 2007. Last year also saw the Sandpoint, Idaho, start-up manufacturer achieve several milestones, including the certification of a new interior, new avionics, FAA approval for a TKS Tank installation in the Kodiak’s cargo pod, and an […]

Piper Aircraft has launched a new airplane in its single-engine M-class series called the M500. An upgraded Meridian turboprop model, the M500 brings Garmin G1000 avionics along with other new technologies to the six-seat airplane, which was first introduced in the early 1980s. In addition to the well-known benefits of the G1000 system, such as […]

This week, less than two years after Diamond Aircraft announced its intent to bring a turbine powered DA50 to market, the Austrian company embarked on the first flight of the airplane that has been named the DA50-JP7. Diamond Aircraft CEO Christian Dries was one of two test pilots on the first flight, which launched from […]

Nextant Aerospace completed the first test flight of the G90XT business turboprop, a remanufactured version of the venerable King Air C90A with new GE H75-100 turbine engines, Garmin G1000 avionics and fresh paint and interior. “The increased power was very noticeable during the takeoff run,” said Nextant chief test pilot Nathan Marker. “I was also […]

Daher-Socata announced that the introduction of the TBM 900 single-engine turboprop translated into a 27 percent increase in sales from 2013 to 2014. Since the French airplane manufacturer’s launch of the new version of the speedy turboprop last March, it delivered 51 of the airplanes before the end of the year. 2014 ended up closing […]