Shortly after Alexander Aircraft had built Al Mooney's design, the Bullet, Mooney left Alexander and teamed up with his brother Art to start the Mooney Aircraft Corporation in the early part of 1929. The first plane the company developed was the Mooney A-1, which was similar to the Alexander Bullet. Unfortunately for the Mooney brothers, the A-1 was released at the start of the Great Depression. The Mooney Aircraft Corporation was out of business in 1931.
Al Mooney was a man that could not be beaten. After the failure of Mooney Aircraft, Mooney went to work for Bellanca Aircraft in 1934. As the chief engineer at Bellanca, he had greatly influenced the entire line of low-wing aircraft. Mooney's talent for design did not go unnoticed; the Monocoupe Aircraft company offered him a job as vice president and chief engineer. At Monocoupe, Mooney designed the Model G and the Monocoach. In 1938, the Culver Aircraft company purchased the rights to the Model G, and Mooney followed his design. While at Culver, Mooney designed the Culver Cadet, a two-seat aerobatic plane with an elliptical wing and retractable landing gear.
When World War II ended, the Mooney brothers teamed up with two investors and resurrected the Mooney Aircraft Company in 1946. In 1947, the company offered its first airplane, the Mooney Mite. The Mite was a single-seat low-wing plane with retractable landing gear. The Mite was the first plane to feature the Mooney now-famous forward-swept vertical tail. The tail is not only visually attractive, its also functional and helps the Mite recover from spins. The Mite was inexpensive and fuel efficient, burning less then four gallons of fuel per hour at a cruise speed of 125 mph.
In 1953, Al Mooney moved the company from Wichita, Kansas, to Kerrville, Texas. Production of the Mite continued until 1956, and Mooney put all his resources into the new Mooney Mark 20. The Mark 20 was a four-seat low-wing airplane designed to fly at 180 mph. The only way to fund the new project was for the Mooney brothers to sell their company stock holdings. Al and Art Mooney left the company they started shortly after the first test flights of the Mark 20; both went to work for Lockheed as aircraft designers.
Mooney Aircraft found success with the Mark 20 in the four-passenger airplane market. The new management team tried to build on this success with old and new technology. The Mite was put back into production for a while and the new Mark 22 Mustang was released. The Mustang featured a pressurized cabin and retractable landing gear, but failed to catch on with pilots. Only 30 planes were built.
The Mooney Aircraft Company has been bought and sold several times since the late 1950s. They still design beautiful, well built airplanes. Mooney Aircraft accolades include 132 world speed records, first single-engine plane with a pressurized cabin and the first production airplane to top 200 mph on a 200-horsepower engine.
Al Mooney retired from the aircraft industry in 1968 and passed away in 1986 at the age of 80. His beautiful designs and "never say die" spirit live on in the planes that bear his name.
