Mooney Aircraft To Restart Assembly Line

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Mooney Aircraft To Restart Assembly Line

February 7, 2014 - Mooney aircraft announced the company had begun the long-anticipated production of the first new Mooney Airplane since 2009. The assembly line will begin to move later this month, February 26th.

Since announcing the return to the market in November, after a five-year production hiatus, the new leadership at Mooney has been busy preparing the dormant company to return to manufacturing. Today’s announcement marks a milestone in returning the 85-year-old aircraft company to its former glory.

"This is an important date in the history of Mooney," commented CEO, Dr. Jerry Chen. "There has been extraordinary effort on the part of everyone at Mooney and I couldn't be more proud of what has been accomplished in a short amount of time."

The Company now employs more than 55 people at the Kerrville operation that is going through a major transformation of improvements. The Company continues to upgrade the facility and has invested in new manufacturing equipment. There is also a strong evolution toward building a more technologically based manufacturing facility that will add to production efficiencies.

The first product that will come off the production line in 2014 will be a M20TN Acclaim Type S. The newest Acclaim models will maintain the TSIO-550-G-Turbo Normalized engine and include an upgraded Garmin G1000 Integrated Avionics Suite.

"We believe in the future of Mooney and we have a solid plan," said Chen, "otherwise we wouldn't be making such significant investments in the Company." Dr. Jerry Chen and the team at Mooney aren't the only ones excited about the future. MAPA, the Mooney Airplane Pilots Association, is hosting their annual Homecoming Convention at the Kerrville Airport, next to Mooney facilities April 10 - 13 to help celebrate the comeback of Mooney.

Trey Hughes, President of MAPA, said, "There is so much pent up excitement about Mooney's return. The owners are anxious to personally meet Dr. Chen and hear about the future of the company." In appreciation of the Kerrville's support of Mooney, the Company factory will open its doors to the entire Kerrville public and host tours through the manufacturing facility during the MAPA Homecoming event. The entire event promises to be a great celebration.

"There's been a void in the market since Mooney ceased production," said Fred Ahles, President of Premier. "Now that they are back, there's a groundswell of demand and we couldn't be more excited to have Mooney start to fill the pipeline with product." In its 85-year history, Mooney has manufactured and delivered more than 11,000 aircraft worldwide. Today, more than 7,800 customers in the United States and 1,000 more overseas fly these proven, high-performance airplanes.