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PRESS RELEASE
Issued by:

Mooney International begins assembly of M10 proof-of-concept
Monday, 20 July 2015

Mooney International is moving at the speed of its planes as it continues to produce M20R Ovation3 and M20TN Acclaim Type S aircraft from the Kerrville factory. It has been a little over a year since the restart of the factory, and it is the one-year anniversary of the celebration of the first M20TN produced since the restart. This time last year at EAA 2014, Mooney International CEO Jerry Chen proudly handed over the keys of N242MR to the happy owner. Many more aircraft have come out of the Kerrville factory since then, and there have been major upgrades to the factory with investment in new digital technology and infrastructure, including a new digital heat treat oven, alodine process line, multi-axis CNC machine, CNC water- jet cutter, newly designed tooling and fixtures, 3D laser scanner, and others. The new developments and upgrades have helped increase aircraft production rate and improved production quality.

In Mooney International's other U.S. office in Chino, CA, engineering and design efforts are continuing to move swiftly with the development and certification of the M10T and M10J. At this time last year, the M10 was still hidden from the world, only to be announced a few months later at Airshow China 2014 in Zhuhai, China. Mooney engineers in Chino are using state-of-the-art digital technology to enhance the engineering design, development, and marketing. Such tools

include Computer Aided Design, Manufacturing, and Engineering tools, 3D visualization, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, and wind tunnel testing, to name a few. The M10 Proof-of-Concept (POC) aircraft is currently being assembled in Chino with first flight slated later this year. Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Dr. Neal Pfeiffer and Program Management Officer (PMO) Dr. Shanling Yang just recently completed wind tunnel testing at Wichita State University in Kansas to verify aerodynamic and stability performance to address any improvements that can be made leading to certification. “Wind tunnel testing is a crucial part of our continued development of the M10 program. Testing will help us see how the M10's predicted aerodynamics hold up in different scenarios to optimize any points as we continue with the development of the Proof of Concept aircraft,” said Dr. Pfeiffer.

Dr. Chen happily checks up on both Kerrville and Chino locations regularly. Even while the Kerrville factory has already undergone many renovations and upgrades, there are other exciting developments coming to Kerrville. One of these is the Mooney History Museum, to which the proceeds from last year's auction of N242MR went. Dr. Chen is excited to announce that the ground breaking for the Museum will take place later this year. Yet another exciting addition to Kerrville is the eventual establishment of the M10 manufacturing line. “We have received a lot of support from the local officials in Kerrville to make this happen,” states Dr. Chen. “I'm so grateful for the support that Mooney has received and continues to receive.” However, Kerrville will not be the only location for M10 manufacturing; a second location for M10 manufacturing with higher production rate will be established in Zhengzhou, China.

Just a year ago, Dr. Chen announced at EAA 2014 that Mooney International would be establishing a third branch in Beijing, China. Today, that office is moving ahead with sales and marketing efforts for Asia, and has already attended several large airshows in Asia, many of which were the first time attendance for Mooney.

Important new partnerships have been established for Mooney. One partnership is with RedBird Flight Simulators. Earlier this year at Sun 'n Fun, Mooney became the exclusive representative of all RedBird products in China. Mooney currently owns four FMX full motion simulators with the new proprietary M20TN/R configuration and software and are currently located in Kerrville, Chino, Beijing and Zhengzhou. A RedBird FMX simulator outfitted with the Mooney M20R/TN configuration is on display at the Mooney booth at EAA this year. Another partnership is with AC Air Technology, makers of remote control airplane tugs. Mooney became the official dealer of the tugs, offers all AC Air Technology models, and will have them on display at leading airshows. Mooney also has an aircraft tug on display at its booth at this year's EAA.

Another partnership that Dr. Chen is excited about is with Dassault Systems, the developers of CATIA/SolidWorks engineering design software and now a new 3D visualization software company, using leading high-performance software like 3DExcite Deltagen. Dassault has expanded into a new experiential marketing technology known as Augmented Reality (“AR”), and Mooney has teamed up with Dassault to create apps allowing users to view and customize Mooney aircraft inside and out from the screen of an iPhone or iPad. Mooney officially launched the first live demo of this 3D augmented reality tool at its booth at this year's EAA. In regards to the new partnerships, Chen states, “our partners create avenues for Mooney to provide our customers with the best technology available.”

Chen boasts about Mooney as a proud parent boasts about his children. And he has all good reason to do so – not only are the three office locations continuing to flourish with giant growth spurts in M20 production, M10 development, and sales and marketing outreach in Asia, but the upcoming establishments of the Mooney Museum and the M10 manufacturing lines keep Chen looking brightly ahead. Further, with the support of new and existing partners, Chen has more reason to keep boasting.

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Mooney International Airframer