All but obscured by the lava flow of VLJ hype is this simple reality: For more than a year, one of the most conservative and oldest airplane manufacturers in the world has been delivering a single-engine turboprop with the performance, legs and load-carrying ability to make any would-be VLJ buyer think twice. The EADS Socata TBM 850 whistles along at a max cruise of 320 knots at FL260, only 20 knots slower than most of the VLJs advertise. It goes further with a load of passengers and burns a lot less fuel. For the owner-pilot, the speed, operating costs and the allure of limiting insurance-mandated training to three days a year rather than nearly two weeks for the VLJ means that the 850 is a contender. We were surprised by the numbers, frankly. In a world that sells airplanes bare to keep the advertised price down, Socata is refreshingly realistic. It provides a basic price for the airplane at about $2.6 million and its literature promptly admits that virtually no airplanes are ordered with basic equipment. Based on sales history, Socata says an average equipped price for the TBM 850 is $2.8 million. That number includes all of the options, of which there arent many. The only big ticket option we saw was a pilots side door at $75,000. 
Background
Socata is a direct descendant of Morane-Saulnier, which began building high-performance monoplanes in 1911. Its now a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS, one of the worlds largest aerospace manufacturers. Based in Tarbes, France, Socata in 1990 certified the TBM 700, an aerodynamically clean, six-place, pressurized turboprop powered by a 700-HP Pratt & Whitney PT-6. The airplane proved successful, with the majority selling in the U.S. For the 850, Socata upped the power to 850-HP with the PT6A-66D and made a few changes to correct perceived shortcomings of the TBM 700, including a lack of baggage space.
In the era of composite airplanes with glass cockpits, the TBM 850 is so conventional its almost retro. The basic airframe is aluminum with a double spar wing thats somewhat overbuilt, having been tested to plus 9 and minus 6 Gs. The horizontal and vertical stabilizers, control surfaces and fairings are composite. In order to keep the stall speed down, long-span Fowler flaps are used, creating a lack of room for ailerons. To get the desired roll control, spoilers are used, so roll rate is brisk and spoiler/aileron interface is seamless.
The combination of old-line structure and a few composites combine to produce a Vmo of 266 KIAS. By comparison, the Eclipse 500, a jet, publishes a Vmo only 19 knots higher: 285 KIAS.
The PT6A turns a four-blade full-feathering reversing Hartzell prop. TBO is currently 3000 hours, although we would expect that to increase with service experience. Dual-position bleeds allow normal operating bleed air to be pulled from the P2.5 position, rather than the P3 position, making for greater engine performance with lower fuel burn because less heat and power is extracted from the engine. Fuel totals 281 gallons usable in two wing tanks, each protected against impact by the wing spars.