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Mooney Ceases Operation


Gagarin

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Plane & Pilot

Mooney Ceasing Production

Closes Kerrville Plant, furloughs hundreds of employees
Plane & Pilot
Published November 12, 2019
3K
Mooney Factory The Mooney factory assembly line in Kerrville, Texas. Courtesy of Mooney International

The Kerrville Daily Times is reporting that Mooney International has ceased manufacturing operations at its Kerrville Airport factory at Kerrville Municipal Airport (KERV), Texas. In the move, a company spokesman said, the company laid off 229 employees, bringing Mooney employment down to around 90 workers. None will be producing aircraft parts, however, which is certain to concern Mooney owners.

At the same time the company, which is owned by the Chinese investment company Soaring American Corporation, says the move is “temporary” and that it will restart production when the market for its singles returns, though prospects for that don’t look promising. Despite best-in-class performance, a recently updated design that includes larger windows and a second, pilot-side entry door, the aircraft have sold poorly even at a time when sales of some competitors’ planes have held steady or surged.

The company had operated research and product development facilities in Southern California until 2017, when it closed that facility and relocated all operations to Kerrville.

 

Mooney was founded in the 1920s by the Mooney Brothers, produced planes in Wichita, Kansas, for a time and moved to Kerrville in 1953. Since then the company has changed hands 11 times by our count.

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At $800K on the new planes is a hard sale considering that you can get a similar Mooney (Bravo/TLS) plane for $200K. Maybe not with an extra door but with a pilot relief and long range tanks. The used Mooneys market is a strong competitor because unlike a new plane you can sell your old plane for the same value you bought it. I bought my 1982 M20J for $65k and now they are selling for $100K.

Edited by Gagarin
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Sad sad news... People are saying they will be back, as they always have... but the difference this time is that Cirrus is in the picture.... And the sad fact is that a cirrus is a much more attractive aircraft for the weekend warrior.   Easier to fly, parachute safety layer, more modern looking and bigger inside, cant forget to put the gear down and you would be hard pressed to whack the prop on a bad landing.  And the big kicker is that they are coming down in price on the used market.  I could have bought a cirrus for what I paid for my Rocket.  There is one for 88k RN on trade a plane... Some nice J's go for that.

I don't like Cirrus... I hated the side stick spring loading ( why why why!!) and I cant stand flying around with gear hanging out... it just bugs me and I know I would be 20-30 knots faster if it was retracted.

 I like to go fast... The cirrus wont come close to breaking 200 knots and I do it on every flight.  There isn't anything except for a Lancair 4p DPGWB-08 that will do what my rocket will do and they cost a LOT more and cost waaaay too much to insure. 

Sad sad news... People are saying they will be back, as they always have... but the difference this time is that Cirrus is in the picture.... And the sad fact is that a cirrus is a much more attractive aircraft for the weekend warrior.   Easier to fly, parachute safety layer, more modern looking and bigger inside, cant forget to put the gear down and you would be hard pressed to whack the prop on a bad landing.  And the big kicker is that they are coming down in price on the used market.  I could have bought a cirrus for what I paid for my Rocket.  There is one for 88k RN on trade a plane... Some nice J's go for that.

I don't like Cirrus... I hated the side stick spring loading ( why why why!!) and I cant stand flying around with gear hanging out... it just bugs me and I know I would be 20-30 knots faster if it was retracted.

 I like to go fast... The cirrus wont come close to breaking 200 knots and I do it on every flight.  There isn't anything except for a Lancair 4/4p that will do what my rocket will do and they cost a LOT more and cost waaaay too much to insure. 

Edited by Austintatious
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I agree that there is something wrong with flying around with the gear hanging in the wind.

My concern is about the Mooney workforce. One does not fall off of the truck qualified to work on the Mooney assembly line. Mooney has two major problems: antiquated assembly line technology that greatly increases the labor hours to build an airplane; and cyclic employment that results in having to train new employees to build airplanes at additional cost. Mooney is handicapped because they are not able to build as many airplanes as they could sell along with the unnecessarily high cost of building each airframe. Having to train new workers instead of maintaining a cadre of trained workers exacerbates the problem. 

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