Marvelous Mooney

Once the furor over Harmon’s abandonment of Al Mooney’s wood medium died down, sales of the new M20B Mark 21 took off. It was certified on Dec. 14, 1960, retaining the M20A’s manual flaps but using a two-tank wet-wing fuel system of 48 gallons; gross weight remained at 2,450 pounds. An improved M20C was certified […]

Starting with a sleek retractable-gear design, Mooney had installed the most sophisticated small power package of the mid-1950s, Lycoming’s 150-hp O-320 engine with a Hartzell constant-speed propeller, barking through unmuffled augmenter exhaust tubes under the belly. The cabin’s width was reportedly based on Beech Bonanza measurements, but other dimensions were compromised. The tail tilted in […]

For good or for ill, the Mooney story is a long and interesting one. After working for various airplane companies in the heady 1920s, the depressed 1930s, and the wartime 1940s, Al Mooney, along with his brother, Art, once again went into business for himself, founding Mooney Aircraft, Inc., in Wichita in 1948. Its only […]

Secondly, Mooney was always one of the most responsive manufacturers in the industry when it came to modifying its airplanes to satisfy a customer’s wishes. Somehow, someway, Mooney would find a means of shoehorning in a different radio or instrument or otherwise make the airplane fulfill a requirement. You want electric landing gear or flaps? […]