The Mooney International Corporation (formerly Mooney Aviation Company, Inc., the Mooney Aircraft Corporation, and the Aerostar Aircraft Corporation) is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Kerrville, Texas, United States. It manufactures single-engined piston-powered general aviation aircraft.
Through its history the company has had many American owners and subsequent bankruptcies. Mooney International was purchased in 2013 by a Chinese private equity, real-estate development company, the Meijing Group who ran it until 2020, when it was purchased by a group of Mooney aircraft owners under US Financial, LLC of Wyoming.
Among Mooney's achievements are: the first pressurized single-engined, piston-powered aircraft, the M22 Mustang, production of the fastest civilian single-engine piston-powered aircraft in the world, the M20TN Acclaim Type S, the first production aircraft to achieve on , the M20J 201 and the fastest transcontinental flight in a single-engine piston-powered production aircraft, the M20K 231.
Many Mooney aircraft have the signature vertical stabilizer with its vertical leading edge and swept trailing edge that gives the illusion of being forward-swept.
History
The company was founded in 1929 by Albert Mooney and his brother Arthur.
Albert Mooney had his first job in aviation at the age of 19 in 1925 when he worked briefly for Alexander Aircraft Company in Denver. He worked for the Marshall/Montague Monoplane Company in Marshall, Missouri, in 1926, but the company had financial difficulties, and Al soon returned to Alexander, where he designed the Alexander Bullet. He was joined by his brother Arthur, known as Art. Early in 1929 Al was invited to meet with some financial backers in Wichita, Kansas, and the Mooney Aircraft Corporation was established with financial backing from the Bridgeport Machine Company. The company owned an airfield and some buildings which could be used to design and build aircraft. Seven months later, Albert's M-5 airplane was test-flown. Due to the Great Depression, the Mooney Aircraft Corporation went bankrupt in 1930. The Mooney brothers worked for other aircraft companies, including the Culver Aircraft Company, from then through World War II. On June 18, 1948, Albert started Mooney Aircraft Incorporated in Wichita, along with Charles Yankey, Art Mooney and W. L. McMahon.
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 Mite was produced into the early 1950s and established some of the design concepts still used by Mooney today.
Al Mooney had been developing the designs for a four-seater plane for some time while the Mite was in production. In early 1953, the company moved to Kerrville, Texas, and when it became clear that the Mite was nearing the end of its production, the development of the new plane was accelerated. The first M20 flight took place on September 3, 1953. Charles Yankey had been the primary financial backer since he helped Al establish the company in 1948, and when he visited Kerrville for a ride in the new airplane, he was pleased with the project and began to develop the financial plans necessary to put the plane into production.
Later that year, before Yankey transferred the funds from Wichita to Kerrville, he suffered a severe stroke, and he died in December 1953. None of Yankey's heirs had any interest in the aviation business, and although he had left his company stock to the two Mooney brothers, that stock had little value without further investment. The company was on the point of declaring bankruptcy when two investors, Hal Rachal and Norm Hoffman of Midland, Texas, decided to step in and save the company. The M20 was certified in September 1955. Shortly thereafter, Albert Mooney left the company and went to work for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Marietta, Georgia. His brother Art joined him there, and both remained with Lockheed until retirement.
During 1955, Mooney sold 10 of the M20 airplanes. Due to start-up costs, they lost $3000 () on each one. Production increased, and they delivered 51 in 1956 and 105 in 1957. The M20 gained attention because it was able to achieve speeds of up to with a Lycoming O-320 engine. The combination of speed and efficiency was noteworthy. In 1958 the M20A joined the lineup with a larger Lycoming O-360-A1A engine, and by 1959 this was the only model offered, with a total sales that year of 231 units. This was the first year the company made a profit. The M20A continued production into 1960 when 166 were delivered. These were the last of the Mooneys to have wooden structures in the wings and tail.
1960s
Since Al Mooney's departure, John W. Taylor had been the chief engineer. In January 1960, the Mooney company convinced Ralph Harmon to leave McDonnell Aircraft and take over management of the engineering efforts. He had previously worked for Beech Aircraft where he headed the design of the Beechcraft Model 35, one of the first all-metal general aviation monoplanes. He later worked on the larger Cessna 620 and McDonnell Model C119, but his interests lay with small aircraft, and he accepted Mooney's offer. He insisted on replacing the wood in the M20 with aluminum, and the all-metal M20B was completed by the end of 1960, less than a year after his arrival. In 1961 the company sold 222 M20Bs. The following year the M20C, a refined version of the M20B, was introduced; 336 were sold that year.
Rachal, Hoffman, and Harmon were not experienced at running an aircraft factory, but saw the need to expand the product line and add dealers, and pushed ahead. In 1963 they introduced the M20D, essentially an M20C with fixed landing gear and a fixed-pitch propeller. This had a slightly lower price than the M20C and was intended as a basic or trainer model which would have lower insurance costs. It could be upgraded with retractable landing gear, and in fact most of them were upgraded over the years. The M20D was produced from 1963 to 1966 with a total production of 141 units. 1964 saw the introduction of the M20E Super 21, based on the M20C but with a more powerful fuel-injected Lycoming engine. The company sold 366 M20Es that year.
To supplement the M20 line, Mooney began development of a high-performance pressurized single, the M22 Mustang. It first flew in September 1965 and was certified two years later. The project was ultimately unsuccessful. Sources disagree on the total production, some saying 36 units, others 32, 29 or 27. What is certain is that each plane was a financial loss for the company. It was reported as having a heavy control response and poor visibility, although it did fly high and fast. The name also could have caused problems, since Cavalier Aircraft had been modifying surplus North American P-51 Mustangs for civilian use and wrote a letter to Mooney asking them not to use the name "Mustang". The letter was ignored and Cavalier filed suit, but by that time the M22 line was nearing its end and the Mustang name had been dropped.
During several years in the early 1960s, Mooney had discussions with Mitsubishi Motors regarding their MU-2. An agreement between the companies was reached in mid-1964: the MU-2 would be fabricated in Japan but assembled by Mooney in the United States. The existing Kerrville facility and workforce was insufficient, so Mooney purchased near the airport in San Angelo, Texas, ( to the northeast of Kerrville), set up an assembly line in an existing hangar, and built new support facilities. The MU-2 sold slowly, partly because the same sales force that was selling the M20 line was also trying to sell the much more expensive MU-2. It cost about $400,000 (), and marketing and selling such an airplane was different than selling a small four-seater. The company's management was also overstretched.
In 1967, Mooney acquired production rights to the Aircoupe from Alon Aircraft Company. Owners John Allen and Lee Higdon, who had left Beech Aircraft to start their own company, took managerial positions at Mooney. Production began in 1968 with a total of 38 units. That year Allen and Higdon both left Mooney, Allen returning to Beech to assist with the Beechcraft Duke. In 1969 the tail of the plane was updated and it became the M10 Cadet, but only 9 units were sold that year. 50 were built in 1970 before the model was terminated, marking the end of the Aircoupe.
Despite strong sales of the M20, Mooney was short of cash. The development of the M22 Mustang had cost more than expected, and was ultimately unsuccessful. The collaboration with Mitsubishi had come with substantial financial assistance but proved too much for the company to handle. Mooney went into chapter 7 bankruptcy in early 1969; American Electronics Laboratories quickly acquired the company in March of that year and invested $600,000 () to keep it operating. Sales that year were less than half of the previous year's figures, although a new model, the M20E Chapparal, was released with electrically-operated flaps and landing gear. AEL was unable to turn the company around, losing nearly a million dollars in just over 9 months, and sold Mooney to Butler Aviation International in December 1969. Butler also acquired the troubled Ted Smith Aircraft Company, maker of the twin-engine Ted Smith Aerostar, and in an attempt to save both companies, it merged them as the Aerostar Aircraft Corporation. The Mooney name was dropped in 1970, as was the M20 designation; the planes were rebranded as Aerostars.
Butler formulated a plan to consolidate aircraft production at the Mooney plant in Kerrville and close the Ted Smith plant in Van Nuys, California, but became mired in a dispute with the American Cement Company, the Ted Smith Aircraft Company's former owner, over alleged corrosion problems with the twin-engine Aerostar. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigated and found that no such problem existed, but the dispute resulted in the suspension of production and the cancellation of the plant relocation plan. Meanwhile, aircraft designer and Ted Smith Aircraft Company founder Ted R. Smith began a campaign to buy his design back and restart production.
1970s
Butler closed the Mooney plant in early 1971 and it remained closed for more than two years. Ted R. Smith and Associates bought back the dormant twin-engine Aerostar line in 1972. In October 1973, Republic Steel Corporation acquired the Mooney aircraft line, renamed the company the Mooney Aircraft Corporation, and resumed production in 1974. Robert Cumming, a general manager at Republic Steel, had owned a Mooney M20F Executive for years and flew it frequently, and wished to put the Mooney M20 back into production. This began in January 1974 with the reintroduction of the M20F Executive. The company continued aggressive product development, working on another pressurized single to compete with the Cessna 210, a turboprop designated the "301". Roy LoPresti, formerly of Grumman Aerospace where he had worked on aircraft design and the Apollo Lunar Module, was hired as chief of research and development to update the M20. The result was the M20J 201, so named because it was capable of with its engine. In a 1979 interview, LoPresti noted that Mooney did not have the resources to develop radical new composite construction aircraft as did other manufacturers, and would focus on evolutionary development of conventional aircraft.