Right on time for Xmas, the new Mooney M10T has achieved it´s first ever flight yesterday out of it´s production facility at Chino.
They said they did not expect certification for several years… Do you by chance know how many years they think would be “several”?
Of course it is is nice that they made this first flight. But after many years in this business I am always sceptical when I hear something about a “Proof of Concept” first flight.
They have at least modern materials and a modern engine, but why they make the same mistake as Cessna with the ttx (to be fair it was Columbia already) to not install a chute in a design, that is new from scratch – I have no idea.
I thought there WAS a chute in the design?
Flyer59 wrote:
Of course it is is nice that they made this first flight. But after many years in this business I am always sceptical when I hear something about a “Proof of Concept” first flight.
I’m surprised to see it fly, based purely on gut feel (not always accurate) and reading the over the top advertising. I guess in the end if you hire enough skilled Chino based homebuilders and warbird recreators you can overcome Chinese public relations ineptitude 
Time, lots of it I’d guess, will tell where the program goes forward from having made the first prototype flight.
Well, I reckon the team at Mooney in Chino wanted to get themselfs a nice Christmas present. Still I am happy to see that the M10 project has taken this significant step.
@mh: The current plan according to Ron Blum is for certification of both the M10T and M10J in 2017.
Oh look, it does fly.
Nice pictures. You can clearly see the aerodynamic team did the gear layout. With a RG, I think the aircraft is acutally pretty from the outside. Not Luscombe-pretty, more Ruschmeyer-pretty though. I hope they don’t let the interieur really be designed in automotive fashion. I could really see me flying one of those for a change.
