Looking at the GAMA shipments, mooney has 56 total planes shipped. Gretchen the CEO recently steps down. Does mooney have very many years left?
Shipments of Mooney and competitors
Ovation 2: 51
Bravo: 5
Cirrus SR22: 403 (cirrus total aircraft shipments at 529)
Columbia 350: 9
Columbia 400: 121 (columbia total shipments at 130)
Bonanza: 49
Looks like they are getting beat in Turbo and normally aspirated market.
Number of aircraft delivered doesn’t mean as much as the profit received per aircraft does. You could deliver 100 aircraft and lose money on each one or you could deliver 35 aircraft and make a profit on each one. Which would you prefer?
The disruption to the owners has not been all that bad over all the many bankruptcies. While there are certainly folks that have been grounded for a time, or lost some money on a part order that didn’t make it, most of us saw our values recover quickly and kept our planes in the air.
Once a fleet reaches a big enough size, it doesn’t really matter that much.
Mooney can likely build and sell about 100 planes a year with the present models. If they trim the company, they can likely make a profit at 50.
What I don’t know is whether steel frames are what slows down the line and costs money at Mooney. I suspect the complexity of the planes is really a pain in many ways. My complete SWAG is that the best way for Mooney to proceed is to design a new plane with a steel frame, wider body, composite skin, similar wing geometry, taller gear (perhaps fixed, or make it a choice), and better visibility.
At the same time, they should watch for a good design in the LSA and VLJ/PJ sectors to go bankrupt and buy it out for pennies on the dollar. In the end you would have a reasonably full product line with better volume.
