The Mooney Airplane Company (MAC) is a U.S. manufacturer of single-engined general aviation aircraft. Mooney has been a leader in civil aviation even though the company has gone bankrupt and changed ownership several times. Among their achievements were the first pressurized single-engine piston-powered aircraft (M22 Mustang), the first production aircraft to achieve 200 mph on 200 hp (320 km/h on 150 kW) (M20J 201) and the fastest transcontinental flight in a single-engine, piston-powered production aircraft (M20K 231). The M20M Bravo DX is the fastest piston-powered aircraft, single or twin-engine, currently in production. It cruises at speeds and altitudes comparable to some turboprops. All Mooney aircraft have the signature vertical stabilizer with its vertical leading edge and swept trailing edge that gives the illusion of being forward-swept.

Mooney Aircraft Corporation was started in 1929 by Albert and Arthur Mooney with funding from Bridgeport Machine Company of Wichita, Kansas. Mooney Aircraft went bankrupt in 1930. The Mooney brothers worked for other aircraft companies from then through World War II. In 1946, Albert started Mooney Aircraft, Inc. with Charles "Pappy" Yankey in Kerrville, Texas. The next year Arthur joined the company.

The first aircraft produced by the new Mooney company was the small, single-seat, Mooney Mite M-18. It was designed to appeal to the thousands of fighter pilots leaving military service (some thought the Mooney Mite looked so much like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 that they called it the "Texas Messerschmitt"). The Mooney Mite set the design that is still used by Mooney today. The model M20 was produced in 1953 and outwardly looked like a scaled-up Mite. Mooney is still producing variants of the M20 today.

In 1953, before funds were put in place for production of the M20, Mooney's financial backer, Charles Yankey, died of a stroke. In 1955 Albert Mooney sold his stock in the company to Harold Rachal and Norman Hoffman then left the company to work for Lockheed Corporation. Shortly after, Arthur left Mooney to work for Lockheed too.

In 1965 the company became the U.S. distributor for Mitsubishi aircraft and began selling Mooney Mu-2 operating as Mooney-Mitsubishi Aircraft Inc. In 1967 they acquired production rights to the Ercoupe from Alon Aircraft Co.

Mooney went bankrupt again in early 1969 and was sold to American Electronics Labs then to Butler Aviation, which ended operations in 1971. No aircraft were produced during this time. In 1973 Republic Steel Corporation acquired the rights and tooling for Mooney and resumed production in 1975. The company continued aggressive product development, working on yet another pressurized single-engine aircraft to compete with the Cessna 210. The turboprop Mooney 301 eventually became the TBM700 and was produced by Socata Aircraft.

In 1984 Mooney merged with the French distribution firm Alexander Couvelaire. In July 2001 Mooney was the victim of yet another bankruptcy and the company was acquired by Advanced Aerodynamics and Structures, Inc. (AASI) in 2002 as Mooney Aircraft Company. Inc., a division of Mooney Aerospace Group, Ltd. The company now operates under the name of Mooney Airplane Company.

However in 2004, MASG (AASI) sold off the Mooney assets to Allen Holding Finance in May, and filed for bankruptcy on June 10. In December 20, MASG restructured and reacquired MAC (Mooney Aircraft Company) back from Allen Holding Finance. AvWeb has the complete story.

Since November 2004 Mooney has been under CEO Gretchen Jahn who has succeeded in rebuilding Mooney. They have new Ovation2 GX and Bravo GX, all-glass Garmin G1000 aircraft, with a waiting list of a few months for a new one. In June 2005, Mooney added a second shift and 50 new workers. They seem to be on the way to [http://www.avweb.com/newswire/11_26b/briefs/190078-1.html recovery. On April 4, 2006, Mooney Airplane Company announced the release of their all-new M20TN Acclaim at the 2006 Sun 'N Fun fly-in at Lakeland, Florida. It features the Garmin G1000 Avionics Display Suite, four heated and leather-wrapped captains chairs with lumbar support, a range in excess of 1,650 nm, (A whole 400 miles greater than the Bravo GX) and a top speed of 265 knots (305.8 mph) which is also 30 knots faster than the Ovation 2 at the time of testing. With orders backed up for 3 months, there are only two Acclaims in the world today. Mooney Airplane Company plans to mass-produce the Acclaim very soon. More details can be seen at Mooney's homepage //mooney.com/news/press_release_detail.cfm?id=53.

MASG - Mooney Aerospace Group is a publicly traded company under symbol (OTC BB: MNYG).

Other References

• Mooney M20 - an in-depth look at the M20J - 201 model, the most popular Mooney ever.

External links

• Mooney Airplane Company website
• The Mooney Mite Site
• History of Mooney models
• The Al Mooney Story: They All Fly Through the Same Air
• FAA type certificate for all M20 models
• History of the Mooney 301
• Vintage Mooney Group
• German Mooney Community

Aircraft manufacturers of the United States

Mooney