Mooney’s Chino, California-based design center, which did much of the work on the emerging M10 line, will move its operations to the Kerrville, Texas, factory headquarters. “We’re going to be consolidating efforts,” says Mooney’s Lance Phillips.
The Chino facility was responsible for the design and development work on the M10 models, a product line that Mooney appears to be rethinking. Last spring at Sun ‘n Fun, Mooney’s then-CEO Vivek Saxena told AVweb that the company didn’t think the market would support a new, clean-sheet trainer and that the company was rethinking the model to be the next-generation piston aircraft. Whether that’s to be a trainer or not, Mooney didn’t say. However, Phillips said the company’s primary investors are still committed to the aircraft and that more information would be forthcoming in a few months.
But consolidating what is essentially a skunk works with production in Kerrville will speed things along. “Getting those two right next to each other and working together is going to be a real benefit. Sharing those resources and that knowledge with the M20 team is going to be invaluable,” Phillips says.
Meanwhile, Mooney continues its search of a new CEO. Saxena left last April, just after Sun ‘n Fun, having served less than a year in the job. He replaced Jerry Chen, who had been hired by Soaring America Corp., the Chinese-backed investment group that bought and recapitalized Mooney.
