What is going to happen to Mooney's?

FloridaPilot

FloridaPilot

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With China's Economy the way it is right now. I wonder how it's going to effect China's plan with the Mooney brand. They were planning to start manufacturing in China. I hope when the dust settles Mooney is still a brand. They don't deserve to go out like that!


What are your thoughts!
 
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China let their economy grow to fast and to high,hopefully mooney will survive.
 
I don't see myself ever flying a aircraft built in China, I haven't had the best luck with most of their products.
 
I remember being at the Kerrville airport in the late 80's and watch 2 Mooneys going thru final testing. No paint, no frills, just testing. That plant was quite small. Surprised me.
 
James331 said:
I don't see myself ever flying a aircraft built in China, I haven't had the best luck with most of their products.
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Ive had fantastic luck with the 1965 Super 21. Im a big fan of that particular Mooney and the idea behind the design.
 
China is still a communist country, they aren't buying GA assets to make money, they are buying GA assets to create a fleet to serve them internally in emergencies. A few years back they had a major earthquake and had a lot of trouble helping those people out. They looked at how the U.S. used GA after Northridge and other natural disasters and it was decided they needed to build a GA infrastructure.
 
Henning said:
China is still a communist country, they aren't buying GA assets to make money, they are buying GA assets to create a fleet to serve them internally in emergencies. A few years back they had a major earthquake and had a lot of trouble helping those people out. They looked at how the U.S. used GA after Northridge and other natural disasters and it was decided they needed to build a GA infrastructure.
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If "helping those folks out" was the objective, they should have bought Sikorsky or some other helicopter manufacturer. Even China can't build enough runways to make an effective emergency supply chain network relying on fixed wing aircraft.
 
Skip Miller said:
If "helping those folks out" was the objective, they should have bought Sikorsky or some other helicopter manufacturer. Even China can't build enough runways to make an effective emergency supply chain network relying on fixed wing aircraft.
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He didn't say they were going to be good at it or even to understand it. They said "we need a company to build small airplanes" so they bought one. Inferring that they suddenly understand GA is like saying that because they started building cars, they understand traffic engineering.
 
Seeing as Mooney had pretty much shutdown with little prospect of operating again until the Chinese investors pumped money into it and began production again, I don't see why anyone has a problem with it.

Chinese also own Cirrus. Chinese own Continental Motors. Quest is owned by the Japanese. Piper is pretty much owned by the Sultan of Brunei. And I am sure there are more.
 
Skip Miller said:
If "helping those folks out" was the objective, they should have bought Sikorsky or some other helicopter manufacturer. Even China can't build enough runways to make an effective emergency supply chain network relying on fixed wing aircraft.
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China owns Enstrom.
 
Cub Crafters just sold the type certificate for the CC18 to the Chinese.
 
It's nothing new. Mooney has been like this for decades, on again, off again, always on the verge of bankruptcy.
 
LDJones said:
Grammar Nazis. They're EVERYWHERE! :yes:
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It's amazing the difference it can make.

"Let's eat grandma" or "Let's eat, grandma." Just a single comma left out, but boy what a difference it will make to grandma . . . :yikes:

Do try to be clear. "Mooney's" means something that belongs to Mooney. "Mooneys" means more than one Mooney. What the OP should have used was simply "Mooney."

--signed, an Engineer who knows better
 
Hank S said:
It's amazing the difference it can make.

"Let's eat grandma" or "Let's eat, grandma." Just a single comma left out, but boy what a difference it will make to grandma . . . :yikes:

Do try to be clear. "Mooney's" means something that belongs to Mooney. "Mooneys" means more than one Mooney. What the OP should have used was simply "Mooney."

--signed, an Engineer who knows better
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Do you feel better now?
 
The Law of Conservation of Apostrophes: "For every apostrophe omitted from an it's, there is an extra one put into an its."

From:

eats-shoots-leaves-lynne-truss.jpg


I think it can be expanded to include ALL apostrophe usage.

A fun read.
 
Skip Miller said:
If "helping those folks out" was the objective, they should have bought Sikorsky or some other helicopter manufacturer. Even China can't build enough runways to make an effective emergency supply chain network relying on fixed wing aircraft.
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No, they have helicopters, they are hugely expensive to operate. They can get 10000 people with shovels and rakes to build a runway in a day.
 
Neal Howard said:
I thought Mooney production was supposed to have been moving to San Antonio, not China.
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Mooney has begun production in Kerrville, TX. They also have an office in Chino, CA.
 
The Politburo is focused on job creation and one of the best ways to do that is to bring in new sectors, such as GA. China needs 19k new jobs every day to keep up with population growth. Fail to do that and the natives will demand another economic model.
 
Neal Howard said:
I thought Mooney production was supposed to have been moving to San Antonio, not China.
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The U.S. production operation is irrelevant, the intellectual property is what is of value. Copy the tooling and set up production in China for the Asian market.
 
LDJones said:
Grammar Nazis. They're EVERYWHERE! :yes:
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Yep,

I did butcher the title, For all of the grammar police that are out there, I'm sorry but follow my other posts I'm sure I will do it again because I'm afraid I'm human and not perfect.
 
James331 said:
I don't see myself ever flying a aircraft built in China, I haven't had the best luck with most of their products.
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China makes everything from Jeans to Office Supplies now. Most of our manufacturing is there, I'm sure there is SOMETHING that you use everyday that is made in China.

With that said, When China took over Mooney and that new Acclaim crashed on it's way to Sun and fun that is not a good look for a new airplane going to market and I love Mooneys....just not the new ones.
 
FloridaPilot said:
With that said, When China took over Mooney and that new Acclaim crashed on it's way to Sun and fun that is not a good look for a new airplane going to market and I love Mooneys....just not the new ones.
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The fact that China owns Mooney had nothing to do with the fact that that Mooney crashed. It was built in Kerrville, TX. I understand that a brand new Mooney crashing shortly after production has re-started doesn't look good, but it has nothing to do with Chinese ownership.
 
Hank S said:
It's amazing the difference it can make.

"Let's eat grandma" or "Let's eat, grandma." Just a single comma left out, but boy what a difference it will make to grandma . . . :yikes:

Do try to be clear. "Mooney's" means something that belongs to Mooney. "Mooneys" means more than one Mooney. What the OP should have used was simply "Mooney."

--signed, an Engineer who knows better
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I suspect the majority of us here know and understand the difference. But we all have momentary brain-farts and random typos. The meaning of the OP's question was clear....I'll let a grammatical or punctuation error slide when I get the intent. Especially in thread titles since those cannot be corrected.
 
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James331 said:
I don't see myself ever flying a aircraft built in China, I haven't had the best luck with most of their products.
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Except some of the most wildly successful products of all time have been manufactured there....think iPhone and iPad.
 
How many new SEP airplanes can a market support? What does Mooney offer that no one else has?

This is the biggest problem in my opinion. Too many different airplane manufacturers for the market and they all basically do the same thing.

What is more economic?

#1 Many manufacturers with very few sales for each one
#2 Fewer manufacturers with more sales of each one?

How many low wing EAB steal sales from the low wing SEP certified builders?
 
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bnt83 said:
How many new SEP airplanes can a market support? What does Mooney offer that no one else has?

This is the biggest problem in my opinion. Too many different airplane manufacturers for the market and they all basically do the same thing.

What is more economic?

#1 Many manufacturers with very few sales for each one
#2 Fewer manufacturers with more sales of each one?

How many low wing EAB steal sales from the low wing SEP certified builders?
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A lot of truth to that, especially when it comes to the rental market. Cirrus had the opportunity to basically take the market if they would have formed a national rental fleet and change the paradigm under which GA operates to a Hertz type model, but they didn't.
 
Henning said:
A lot of truth to that, especially when it comes to the rental market. Cirrus had the opportunity to basically take the market if they would have formed a national rental fleet and change the paradigm under which GA operates to a Hertz type model, but they didn't.
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IMHO #1 is why we see so many brands constantly going into and being resurrected from Bankruptcy.

Some of them just need to go away or focus on post production support.
 
bnt83 said:
How many new SEP airplanes can a market support? What does Mooney offer that no one else has?

This is the biggest problem in my opinion. Too many different airplane manufacturers for the market and they all basically do the same thing.
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I think Mooney offers effeciency, and speed. Yes, you can buy a Cirrus and get similar speeds.
 
Anthony said:
I think Mooney offers effeciency, and speed. Yes, you can buy a Cirrus and get similar speeds.
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How many different manufacturers of new airplanes use a 300 horse engine? How many of those models are so similar that eliminating some of them wouldn't really be noticeable?

How many different manufacturers of new airplanes use a 200 horse engine? How many of those models are so similar that eliminating some of them wouldn't really be noticeable?

...
 
bnt83 said:
How many different manufacturers of new airplanes use a 300 horse engine? How many of those models are so similar that eliminating some of them wouldn't really be noticeable?

How many different manufacturers of new airplanes use a 200 horse engine? How many of those models are so similar that eliminating some of them wouldn't really be noticeable?

...
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Part of it has to do with brand loyalty and aesthetics. I like Cirrus but would prefer a Mooney. Part of it has to do with competition and keeping ideas flowing. Not all will be successful and that's alright. I'm glad to see that Mooney made a come back. I think that given the advances that Cirrus has made, you'll start to see that bleed over into other manufacturers, such as Mooney (look at the new M10J with the fixed gear).
 
bnt83 said:
How many different manufacturers of new airplanes use a 300 horse engine? How many of those models are so similar that eliminating some of them wouldn't really be noticeable?

How many different manufacturers of new airplanes use a 200 horse engine? How many of those models are so similar that eliminating some of them wouldn't really be noticeable?

...
Click to expand...

How many planes can cruise at 160 KTAS on 10.5 GPH?
 
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