All earlier M20's were fully metallic. The roll cage was covered by a ductile metallic skin, and well proven to be saving the lives in the crash like no other planes in its class. However, there is a difference between a ductile (energy absorbing) metallic construction, and a brittle and FLAMMABLE (the epoxy burns like hell) construction. I suggested to some people at Mooney: Place a beer can on the table, pound it with your fist. The impact will squash it, no sweat. But now I'll give you same size can, made of the fiberglass. Pound on it! Will you? Plus, the metal will not burn with same intensity as the E-glass (epoxy) does. That's my opinion. I may be wrong, but no any emergency landing/crash tests on Ultra models were performed to prove that such construction is safety wise comparable to earlier fully metallic M20's.
It was a big mistake that the proven fully metallic construction was changed to a fiberglass shell over the roll cage (to save money, probably the Chinese, the "experts" in plastics thought that they may produce this "condom" in China, ship it to Kerrville, slip it on, and "here we go baby"!).
This Ultra model has NOT been tested in the impact, yet approved by FAA, and claimed by Mooney to be same or even better than the earlier fully metallic models. From number of reasons I am the supporter of fully metallic Mooney construction. The composite is POC (Piece Of Crap), such as the shameful M10 was.
