The news received at Oskosh:
The first to fly Acclaim was sold in an auction to finance a Mooney Museum at Kerrville. It fetched close to the asking price of a new Acclaim, which is $699k.
There are 27 firm orders in place which were communicated by Mooney plus several options. 10 of which go to China, 17 to the US.
Mooney is planning to build 6 more airframes in 2014, 24 in 2015 and 36 in 2016. This means that production for 14 and 15 is sold out by now.
Mooney sais, the ratio will be about 5:1, 5 Acclaims have been ordered for each Ovation.
Mooney is now ceasing production, but at least it was the Chinese that were left high and dry.
boscomantico wrote:
Shall we talk again in, say, 5 years?
No comment 
Let’s talk in yet another five years, Mooneys will be flying then as now as then and maybe I’ll have a Bellanca…
(Five years later and I still dream of a Viking as per post #549, Bellanca’s pulse is apparently going flat line at the moment too but as with Mooneys there is no shortage on the market, maybe in another five years)
A most unfortunate development.
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.
I wonder what those 90 people will be doing, if not making parts which has to be a nice multi million $ business?
That would be bad news for owners, although (like e.g. Socata) it is an issue only if you need airframe parts and there aren’t enough being parted-out.
It is more of an issue for EASA-reg owners because they can’t directly use secondhand parts from the US; they have a longer process to comply with.
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.
Amazing… can anyone guess why the 2 door versions did not sell?
The competition in that price segment comes with either a second engine or a chute. The market was very clear already five years ago but Mooney just kept deaf/blind. They had a shot with the M10 trainer but they didn’t pursue. Piper is selling Archer-trainers like hotcakes now…
It’s time to move on. I’m sad for the employees, but if you don’t innovate, ultimately you won’t last. How long exactly are we supposed to be able to sell $800K planes that were designed in the early 50’s? You need a chute and you probably need a diesel to succeed in this segment today. I should add I always liked Mooney’s. They have spectacular performance and amazing range.
Peter wrote:
can anyone guess why the 2 door versions did not sell?
It doesn’t have a parachute and it has the extra complexity of retractable gear. The competition both has a parachute and fixed gear.
Actually, they did sell quite a few Ultras and their order book was, according to my information, at least 15 more. For that reason, the shutdown is surprising at this time but unfortunately, as they dropped the M10, probably a logical consequence. Personally I think the 2nd door was a nice feature but way too late. Yet, I think just like Italian sports cars, there is a market for this kind of tourer, but not at this crazy price.
The question is if again someone will jump in fast. At the moment, the workforce is in place and if recalled in a timely manner, could resume at least to complete orders.
I fear that the underlaying reason for this could be the accident of a brand new Acclaim in June, which claimed the life of the owner after 4 months in hospital. It showed brutally just how superior a shute design is, even if the airplane itself is not.
From what we hear however there will be a workforce retained of approximately 90 people for now to keep up parts and support for the fleet. Hopefully that is true, as it would be difficult for owners if the factory would totally close, something which has not really happened before. For the older airplanes, parts are plenty, however for the newer ones, it would be a huge problem.
This thread was the longest we ever had on EuroGA, until this one 
Some early and profound lessons for the mod policy too…
I am not surprised they went bust (basically it was obvious there were almost zero new sales for years) but I am really totally amazed the spare parts business has been killed too. The Mooney fleet is several times bigger than Socata’s, and Socata’s is worth a few million.
One thus has to assume that too was not selling anything, but why?
I know a “Mooney” is basically a load of (mostly) metal bits and an engine and a prop and some avionics, and all but the “metal bits” is never purchased from Mooney anyway (same comment for Socata and most other conventional-style metal planes), but are all the airframe parts for which there is demand (the tail and control linkages in particular tend to be in demand, due to ground damage and wear/corrosion, respectively) PMAd?
Or is it that most Mooneys are in the US where people can simply (and legally) repair stuff, or use parted-out parts, whereas in Europe this is much more difficult for the average owner whose maintenance company wants to simply supply a new elevator for 10k and make 2.5k on it?
If Mooney disappear completely, what happens to all the EASA-reg ones? Will they go onto national CofAs?
