“Mooney Rises”
Chino, CA – Mooney International’s comeback tour landed at the Planes of Fame Airshow on May 3-4, as they played host sponsor of the show.
Mooney International was founded in 1929, and has manufactured more than 11,000 aircraft worldwide. After being dormant for five years, Mooney’s manufacturing headquarters has restarted its production line.
[pullquote-right]“It’s an exciting time at Mooney and quite a revolutionary period for our company, to say the least.” Said Jerry Chen, CEO”[/pullquote-right]Throughout the show, Mooney representatives were answering a multitude of questions from aviation enthusiasts about Mooney aircraft, and had periodic presentations explaining the rise of Mooney and it’s exciting upcoming releases and online auction. Mooney will soon be releasing the new Acclaim Type S, and reintroducing the Ovation 3, which features a 310hp Continental Gold standard IO-550 engine and an industry-leading 197 know cruise speed.
Mooney’s aircraft are known for their safety, their speed, and their style. On Sunday, Photorecon was given the privilege to fly in a four-ship of Mooneys and see first-hand the quality and performance level of the aircraft.
With demands growing, Dr. Chen has launched an online auction to purchase the first new production Mooney. The keys to this first Mooney will be presented to the winner of the online auction at this year’s Air Venture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. All of the proceeds will go towards the future Mooney History Museum that will be located on Mooney campus in Kerville, TX. After the first aircraft has been delivered, Dr. Chen said one Mooney will come off the production line every 20-30 days until December 2014, when they expect to be producing 2 per month. He went on to say by the third quarter of 2015, production will be at 3 per month.
[pullquote-left]“2014 is a transformational year for Mooney”, said Chen. “This is not the year to see how many airplanes we can produce. Instead, this is year to set new quality standards and put best practices in place without the pressures of a high production count. We are being very methodical at every step in order to significantly ramp up in the future.”[/pullquote-left]
In the previous owners, Dr. Chen saw a special passion and a love of Mooneys. He stated that he was going to “…take that passion, and put it back into the air.” He added, “The passion of flight returns, because Mooney rises.”
We’d like to thank Mooney International for their superb hospitality over the weekend, and the pilots of our four-ship for an incredible flight demonstration.
Brandi Lewis
