Is Mooney Aircraft Still in Business in 2026?

Eric DawsonByEric Dawson Business

For anyone asking, is Mooney Aircraft still in business in 2026, the answer is yes, but as a fleet-support, service, and certified-parts operation rather than a current new-aircraft manufacturer. Mooney’s Factory Service Center in Kerrville, Texas, reopened in April 2025, while the company was not planning to build new airplanes again “any time soon.”

LASAR is funding and coordinating a parts-operation rebuild valued at around $3 million, while Mooney retains its Type Certificate and responsibility for manufacturing certified parts as of September 2026. The arrangement supports a substantial legacy fleet, including more than 11,000 M20 aircraft.

What Does Mooney Do Today?

Mooney Aircraft operates as a service, certified-parts, and fleet-support business in 2025 and 2026. Its documented work centers on supporting existing aircraft rather than restarting serial production of new airplanes.

Plane + Pilot reported that Mooney’s Factory Service Center reopened for business in Kerrville, Texas, in April 2025. That facility sits at the historic Mooney factory, northwest of San Antonio, where the company has operated since moving from Wichita in 1953.

Operations at the Kerrville Factory Service Center show that Mooney remains active through service work. An April 2025 report said the company did not expect to resume building new airplanes soon, distinguishing its current service operations from aircraft production.

Parts Support Takes Priority

In January 2026, LASAR, an aircraft maintenance company at Prineville Airport in Oregon, said it was financing and managing the restoration of Mooney’s Kerrville parts operation. Work included validating drawings and specifications again, restoring tooling, reconnecting with suppliers, and preserving expertise held by longtime Mooney employees.

Parts-production planning focuses on components that can ground an aircraft when certified replacements are unavailable. LASAR said supply-chain disruption had already left some Mooney owners waiting for parts needed to return their aircraft to service.

Under the LASAR Mooney partnership, LASAR serves as the primary distributor to owners and maintenance organizations, providing financing, purchasing, vendor coordination, quality documentation, and information technology systems.

Operational support also includes the Mooney Service Centers portal, which gives participating centers real-time inventory visibility across Mooney and LASAR warehouses. The portal includes aircraft-on-ground prioritization and predictable pricing for service centers handling urgent maintenance needs.

Is Mooney Aircraft Still in Business?

Mooney remains in business for fleet support and parts, not as a confirmed serial producer of new airplanes. Current reporting separates Type Certificate stewardship and certified-parts manufacturing from a resumed assembly line. That distinction means owners can receive support without new aircraft being built. Describing Mooney as a current aircraft builder would exceed the documented record.

Two Different Business Roles

LASAR’s January 2026 account describes its Mooney partnership as covering financing, purchasing, vendor coordination, quality documentation, and information-technology systems. The arrangement separates customer distribution from the manufacturing responsibilities described earlier.

Evidence for the manufacturing side points to a break rather than a restart. Mooney’s latest clearly documented interruption began on November 12, 2019, when its Kerrville operation was shuttered and employees were furloughed, according to Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association reporting. Subsequent coverage said new airplanes were not planned “any time soon” in April 2025.

Historical delivery figures explain why production and support should not be treated as the same question. Before the shutdown, Mooney delivered 14 aircraft in 2018 and four in the first half of 2019, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association reported. Those figures describe past deliveries, rather than present serial output. They also do not establish a future production schedule.

LASAR prioritizes first-year production work by safety-of-flight impact, focusing on low-volume items that restore aircraft availability. In January 2026, prices for Mooney-built parts rose 30 percent, according to LASAR.

Ownership does not alter the operational distinction. LASAR says it did not buy the Mooney brand, so its distribution and infrastructure role should not be read as ownership. Corporate responsibility and operating responsibility are separate questions here. That separation is useful when assessing reports about the LASAR Mooney partnership.

Buyers evaluating a Mooney should separate present support from a future airplane-production decision. Neither is evidence of the other.

I would treat the documented parts and service activity as stronger evidence that Mooney remains operational than as evidence that it has returned to aircraft manufacturing. The April 2025 service-center reopening, Type Certificate responsibility, and roughly $3 million parts rebuild all point to meaningful fleet support. But the better test for calling Mooney a current manufacturer is confirmed serial output, and the record does not establish that production resumed after the January 2020 layoffs. The two conclusions can coexist without stretching the evidence.

How the Kerrville Shutdown Unfolded

Kerrville’s manufacturing shutdown began on November 12, 2019, when Mooney Aircraft International ceased production at its Texas factory. Within two months, a brief reopening had ended with another complete employee layoff on January 6, 2020. That sequence explains why the November event and the later shutdown need to be treated as separate stages.

BWI, citing the Kerrville Daily Times, reported that 229 employees lost their jobs in the November action. Those layoffs included all workers on the aircraft-production and parts lines, so factory output stopped at the Kerrville, Texas facility.

Plane + Pilot separately reported that around 90 workers remained after the 229-person layoff. That figure referred to the remaining total workforce rather than production-line employees. None of the workers who remained were expected to produce aircraft parts, according to Plane + Pilot.

After the closure, the company voicemail told callers that all Mooney employees had been furloughed and could not respond to inquiries. Plane + Pilot described the manufacturing halt as temporary, based on a spokesman’s statement that production would restart when demand for its single-engine aircraft returned.

During December, AVweb reported that the factory reopened after a two-week shutdown. A regional dealer told AVweb that employees building aircraft and parts had returned to work on the reopening Monday. Meanwhile, AVweb said Mooney was seeking additional financing, while representative Devan Burns said negotiations with another investor were under way.

January brought a second and more complete employment action. The corporate-history account records that Mooney laid off all employees on January 6, 2020, and did not pay holiday pay that workers were owed. Like the November furloughs, this later action covered the entire workforce. Holiday-pay claims add another practical detail to the short period between the December reopening and the renewed closure.

Taken together, the timeline runs from the November 12 production stop, through the short December restart, to the January 6 workforce layoff. BWI’s 229-person figure measures the employees dismissed in the first action, including all aircraft and parts-line staff. Plane + Pilot’s around 90 figure measures people said to remain afterward, not workers who continued making airplanes or parts.

New Aircraft Production vs Parts Support

Mooney’s current role is fleet support, factory service, and certified-parts manufacturing rather than documented serial new-aircraft production. Current evidence separates maintaining existing airplanes from assembling newly delivered aircraft.

For Mooney, certified-parts work differs legally and operationally from building complete aircraft. Under the January 2026 structure, the company keeps the Type Certificate and responsibility for producing certified parts. LASAR serves as the main distributor for owners and maintenance organizations, while LASAR Aviation handles financing, purchasing, vendor coordination, quality records, and information-technology systems.

Factory service offers another useful distinction for prospective owners. Plane + Pilot reported that more than 11,000 M20 aircraft have been built, but historical production totals do not describe the present manufacturing role. Those four-seat, single-engine, retractable-gear aircraft remain central to the support question because their continued airworthiness relies on parts and maintenance. Service access, parts manufacture, and Type Certificate stewardship reflect a narrower operating role than current new-aircraft production.

Comparison point New-aircraft production Parts and fleet-support activity
2025 operating status Plane + Pilot reported no plan to build new airplanes again “any time soon.” The Factory Service Center at the Kerrville, Texas, factory had reopened by April 2025.
Certified-parts responsibility No new-aircraft delivery programme was announced. Mooney retains the Type Certificate and responsibility for manufacturing certified parts.
Parts recovery programme No serial-production restart was part of the January 2026 programme. LASAR described a first-year parts-production programme worth about $3 million.
Customer impact No current new-model availability was identified. LASAR applied a uniform 30 percent increase to Mooney-built parts.

LASAR focuses its current parts work on repairing supply-chain gaps. Company efforts include revalidating drawings and specifications, rebuilding tooling, re-engaging suppliers, and preserving knowledge held by long-serving Mooney employees. Missing low-volume grounding components receive priority because their absence can leave an aircraft unairworthy. The portal supports these efforts.

Pricing reflects the cost of restoring that capability. LASAR said the 30 percent increase supports timely materials, certified labor, quality systems, and equipment upkeep. Supplemental and Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) item prices follow product-specific pricing, with changes posted in the portal and online catalog. Owners assessing a Mooney should separate service access and parts availability from the prospect of ordering a newly built aircraft.

Planned catalog expansion begins with high-impact stock-keeping units, with target restock dates intended for publication. More machining and finishing are scheduled to move in-house to reduce cost and lead times. Quarterly reports are to cover shipped parts, items in production, and upcoming plans. All profits are being reinvested into inventory, personnel, and machinery, according to LASAR.

Mooney Aircraft Parts Production and LASAR

LASAR funds and coordinates a rebuild of Mooney’s Kerrville, Texas, parts operation, while Mooney retains responsibility for manufacturing certified parts. Under the arrangement described in January 2026, LASAR serves as the primary distributor to owners and maintenance organizations rather than the buyer of the Mooney brand.

For its manufacturing role, Mooney retains stewardship of the Type Certificate and produces certified components for the existing fleet. Meanwhile, LASAR Aviation manages the operational functions described above.

Operational work has focused on restoring a disrupted supply chain for components that can leave aircraft unairworthy when unavailable. The programme prioritizes parts according to their safety-of-flight impact.

How the Parts Rebuild Works

LASAR said the work concentrates on low-volume “grounding” parts, because their absence can keep an otherwise serviceable aircraft from flying.

  1. First, LASAR identifies stock-keeping units whose absence grounds an aircraft.
  2. Next, the programme sets specifications, dates, and minimum order quantities for those components.
  3. Finally, Mooney and LASAR stage long-lead materials and vendor deposits in the order needed for production.

Rebuilding Mooney parts now carries higher prices. In January 2026, LASAR announced an immediate 30 percent increase, saying many items had sold below their true cost for years. The company said the change supports timely materials, certified labor, quality systems, and equipment upkeep.

LASAR plans to expand its catalog around high-impact stock-keeping units and publish target restock dates. Meanwhile, more in-house machining and finishing are intended to reduce costs and lead times.

Who Owns Mooney Aircraft?

Beyond that, lasar is not Mooney Aircraft’s documented owner. In January 2026, LASAR said it had not bought the brand and called its role stewardship, rather than an ownership change. Current descriptions therefore distinguish LASAR’s operational involvement from ownership of Mooney, a useful boundary for anyone tracing the company’s corporate control.

Under the January 2026 description, Mooney retains the Type Certificate. LASAR characterizes the arrangement as a partnership rather than a purchase, while service and parts operations remain separate in Kerrville, Texas.

Mooney’s ownership record begins in 1929, when Albert Mooney and Arthur Mooney founded the business. A historical account says the original company went bankrupt in 1930, and Albert Mooney began a Wichita company with new investors in 1948. Financial pressure then led to Chapter 7 bankruptcy in early 1969.

American Electronics Laboratories acquired Mooney in March 1969 and invested $600,000. Republic Steel bought the aircraft line in October 1973, renamed the operation Mooney Aircraft Corporation, and resumed M20F Executive production in January 1974. Plane + Pilot says the company changed hands 11 times after its 1953 move to Kerrville.

Another ownership change followed a July 2001 bankruptcy filing. Advanced Aerodynamics and Structures Inc., or AASI, acquired Mooney in 2002. Soaring America Corporation, led by Cheng Yuan, known as Jerry Chen, purchased the company on October 8, 2013, before US Financial took over on September 1, 2020.

US Financial, a limited liability company (LLC), named Jonny Pollack as chief executive officer at the 2020 takeover. Later LASAR reporting neither identifies LASAR as buyer nor describes its involvement as a change in ownership. Ownership claims should therefore distinguish those dated transactions from LASAR’s explicitly stated non-owner position.

Chronology offers a clearer answer than treating every business relationship as ownership. Each dated acquisition identifies a historical controller. Readers asking who owns Mooney Aircraft should separate those documented changes from LASAR’s stated non-owner role. Corporate relationships, product support, and ownership remain separate categories in that reading.

How Mooney Compared with Cirrus

Measured by reported output, Cirrus recorded a larger delivery count than Mooney’s 2018 result. Cirrus’s reported total covers the first three quarters of 2019, whereas Mooney’s figure spans a full earlier calendar year. Because those reporting windows differ, the comparison shows only relative scale between manufacturers rather than a like-for-like sales result.

AVweb reported the figures, and the labels below preserve the distinct periods behind them. Each row identifies what was counted, when the count was reported, and the associated dollar value where one was reported. Readers should compare the entries as separate snapshots of activity, not as two measures drawn from one common deadline.

Manufacturer Reporting Period Aircraft Reported Reported Value
Mooney 2018 14 aircraft $10.7 million
Cirrus First three quarters of 2019 310 aircraft Not reported in the comparison

Mooney’s 2018 line combines aircraft output with a total reported value. That monetary amount describes the year’s aircraft collectively, rather than a listed price for an individual airplane. Dividing the value by the production count would create a calculated average that AVweb did not report, so the total belongs beside the output figure unchanged.

Cirrus’s row is a delivery count and carries no matching sales-value figure in the reported comparison. Neither company’s entry supplies a shared full-year 2019 measure, a shared revenue measure, or a shared model-by-model breakdown. Direct percentage comparisons would therefore overstate what these two reported snapshots establish for either manufacturer across the two periods.

Context from AVweb further identifies the Acclaim Ultra as Mooney’s only model in production at the time of the shutdown. AVweb valued the last Acclaim Ultras leaving the factory at nearly $850,000 each. That model-specific figure is distinct from the combined annual value in the table, which covers a different measure. Scope differs from Cirrus’s aggregate delivery total.

For readers deciding what “still in business” means here, separate current support activity from historic delivery totals. Owners needing service or certified components should focus on the operating support arrangements described elsewhere, not assume that past output signals a current new-aircraft program. Buyers comparing aircraft should treat the table as dated market context for a purchase or maintenance decision.

This guide does not identify Mooney’s current legal entity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mooney Building New Airplanes in 2026?

Mooney was not planning to resume new-aircraft production “any time soon,” Plane + Pilot reported in April 2025. The documented activity in 2025 and 2026 centers on service, certified parts, and support for the existing fleet.

What Happened at the Mooney Kerrville Texas Factory?

The Kerrville factory shut down on November 12, 2019, and Mooney International furloughed all employees. A Factory Service Center at the Mooney factory reopened for business in April 2025.

What Is the LASAR Mooney Partnership?

LASAR Aviation funds and coordinates the rebuild of Mooney’s Kerrville parts operation, including purchasing, vendor coordination, quality documentation, and information technology systems. Its first-year parts-production program was valued at about $3 million and prioritized components with safety-of-flight significance.

Who Owns Mooney Aircraft Now?

Beyond that, lasar stated that it has not bought the Mooney brand. That arrangement is described as stewardship and operational support rather than an ownership change.

Can Mooney Owners Still Get Certified Parts?

Mooney retains the Type Certificate and responsibility for manufacturing certified parts. Meanwhile, LASAR serves as the primary distributor to owners and maintenance organizations.

Why Did Mooney-Built Parts Prices Increase?

LASAR announced a 30 percent increase for Mooney-built parts in January 2026. Higher pricing was intended to address components sold below their true cost for years and support materials, certified labor, quality systems, and equipment upkeep.

References

Sources read in September 2026.

Eric Dawson

I'm Eric Dawson, and I write The Money Watch from north Columbus, Ohio. Most of what I cover comes from my own life: renting, a 2014 Honda Fit, parking, computers, food and the bills behind all of it. I spent four years in an apartment-property office and eleven on a distributor's operations desk, reading leases and invoices. Where you need real information, I research the maker's or agency's own page and independent sources and report what they publish. I don't give tax, investment, legal or medical advice.