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Mooney M20 / M21 / M201

After the Mite and a corporate shuffle, the company moved from the original Kansas facility to Kerrville, Texas, and re-emerged one year later with a four-seater called the Mark 20. Pug Piper offered to buy it and Mooney regrets not taking Piper's marketing know-how. The first M20 was built in 1955 and kept the Mite's most distinctive features: the high-aspect-ratio wing; squared-off wingtips; manually activated, stubby, trailing-beam landing gear; and the all-moving tail assembly with its forward -swept trailing edges.

First flown on August 10,1953 with a Lycoming O-320 engine, the 150-hp engine was upgraded to O-360-A 180 hp as the M-20A, improving the Mark 20's takeoff, climb and cruise performance with an acceptably small sacrifice in economy. Mooney owners could count on a cruise speed of 150 knots at 75-percent power, making the Mark 21 the fastest airplane for the horsepower in its class. It wasn't long before Mooneys were outselling all other single-engine retractables, an honor they would hold until the ascendancy of the Piper Arrow in the late 1960s. This all-wooden wing aircraft was in production until 1961 when the all-metal M20B was introduced. This was superseded by the M20C Mk2l in 1962.

From the M20C the basic structure has been all-metal but with the unusual feature of a welded steel tube frame for the cabin area, covered in sheet light alloy, and the more conventional semi-monocoque construction aft of the rear seats. The wing is made as a single full-span unit of considerable strength to support the fuselage, and the entire empennage, tailplane, fin, rudder and all, pivots to provide a low-drag elevator trim.

In 1963, Mooney introduced two variations on the theme: the Master (M-20D), a fixed-gear fixed-pitch-prop less sophisticated (read cheap) airplane that could be used for training; and the Super 21 (M-20E), a Mark 21. The Master was actually an attempt to generate brand loyalty in the flight-training stratum. The M20E Super 21 with a 200-hp injected Lycoming giving a maximum cruise of 187 mph. In 1965, Mooney offered an optional electrically actuated retractable landing gear system. By 1965 Mooney was selling almost 700 aircraft that year, with the M20F Executive with stretched fuselage offered a year later in 1966. It was essentially a Super 21 with a longer fuselage and a third side window.

Square windows were introduced in 1967 for O-360-AID-powered Ranger and Executive, and M20J or Model 201, both of which had Lycoming IO-360-A1B6D engines.

The Executive has an extra 10 inches of length and extra window in the aft cabin. The Executive has a gross weight of 2,740 pounds, 165 pounds - almost one passenger's worth - more than the Chaparral and the Ranger. The empty aircraft weighs 40 pounds more than its 200-hp cousin, the Chaparral, however, so the useful-load difference is whittled to 125 pounds. Engine: Lycoming IO-360-AlA. The advertised service ceiling of an Executive is 18,800 feet.

The Executive's larger, airier cabin, higher gross weight and increased fuel capacity proved to be a popular combination, and it wasn't very long before Mooney came up with yet another stretch job, this time on the ubiqui-tous Mark 21, resulting in the Statesman.

Only 196 of the M20G Statesman model were built in 1968 and 1969, as basically an M20F powered by only a 180 hp Lycoming instead of the normal 200 hp, with a consequent lower gross weight. But the longer fuselage (with its built-in invitation to greater load factors) didn't fare as well with the smaller, 180-hp engine, and most people opted for the high-er-powered version.

Beginning in 1968 there was some name changing: the Mark 21 became the Ranger, the Super 21 became the Chaparral. The standard-body airplanes now had a one-piece windshield, even nicer instrument panels, and paint designs that actually complemented their lines. Electric gear retraction was standard equipment, the hand pump arrangement that lowered the flaps had given way to a simpler electric system.

 

The Ranger is recognizable by looking first at the chin beneath the propeller spinner. Executives and Chaparrals, both with Lycoming IO-360-A1A engines, have a filter housing that is flush with the cowling, but the air filter on the Ranger, powered by the Lyc O-360-A1D, is set up with its lower edge jutting out just a bit. Otherwise, a Ranger is exactly like a Chaparral, which is, with the exception of 10 inches of fuselage length, exactly like an Executive. All three air-planes have the same wingspan: 35 feet.

After the take-over by Republic, the M20 underwent a major efficiency and drag reduction programme to produce the M20J. The last of the M20Cs was built in 1978, a year after the popular 200-hp M20J was introduced - known as the 201 because the cruise speed was 201 mph. Late in 1976, Mooney presented the Model 201 as a new design that boasts a significant speed increase over the Mooney Executive. The same size as the Executive and, like it, powered by a 200-hp Lycoming engine, the 201 is capable of a 174-knot (201 mph, hence the name) top speed, the increase a result of a very effective aerodynamic cleanup.

The early 201s had the Vne upped from 173 kt to 195 and the Vno from 151 to 173 kt by removing the propeller high pitch (full coarse) stops. Roy Lopresti, who did the aerodynamic clean-up on the Grumman range to get the excellent figures for the Tiger and Cheetah, joined Mooney in 1975 work on the Mooney M20F Executive to turn it into the Mooney M20J Model 201. It’s careful attention to detail plus striking a balance between cost and benefit. Flush riveting is used extensively both above and below the wing back to the rear spar. And also on the fuselage from the nose cowl back to the widest part just abeam of the front seats. Careful fitting of all doors and windows and the increased rake of the windshield over that on earlier Mooneys all add up. The Mooney fuselage is a welded steel tube and underneath the starboard wing a little bump protrudes that is the new OAT sensor replaces the old temperature probe usually seen sticking out from the windshield on other aircraft. The trim system is unique on light aircraft in that the whole tail assembly pivots for trimming - rudder and all. This was a design feature of all Mooneys designed by Al Mooney. On this area Mr Lopresti limited his efforts to ensuring good sealing around all gaps and joins. The 201 was a new airplane, an addition to the Mooney line. The 200-hp Executive re-mains a part of it, although many observers thought the 201 would replace the Executive, which has the same engine, wing and fuselage.

1978 updates for the 201 incorporate a revised power console with vernier push-pull controls in place of the power levers of yore. There's also a revised gear-extension system with a cable and pull-handle, replacing the crank that was always in semi-eclipse, half covered by the pilot's seat. They've also relocated the fuel selector to a position just forward of the front seats and left of the centerline, which should now make it easier to see and to reach.

The M20K 231/252 first appeared in 1979 and differed from the 201 in that it had a Continental 210-hp. There's a prop extension on the front of the 231 longer engine, and the 231 has a longer and very distinctive nose. Two landing lights are located in the chin of the new cowling, and the cowl flaps are larger. There's a new wing-root fillet, and non-ic-ing fuel vents. The fuel filler caps have been placed farther out on the wingand the tanks are bigger, with a usable capacity of 75 USG.

A dorsal fin has been added at the rear, including a scoop for cabin air. This new ventilation system eliminates the scoop right atop the cabin.

In 1988 Mooney teamed up with Porsche and produced forty-one 217-hp Porsche engined aircraft, the M20L. The incredibly quick, big-block Mooneys began rolling off the line in 1988 with the 220-knot, 270-hp M20M Bravo, followed by the 280-hp M20R Ovation in 1994. The M20M model was available in two versions. The MSE has the four-cylinder Lycoming O-360 and the TLS (Turbo Lycoming Sabre in marketing parlance) has more power.

Four-seat Allegro (former M20J) production ended 1998, and Encore (M20K) became built in batch orders. Bravo (M20M) four-seater has turbocharged TI0-540-AF1A and was previously known as TLS (first appeared 1989), while Ovation (M20R) first flew May 1994 and has Teledyne Continental IO-550-G5B engine.
Mooney’s next model was the 244-hp M20S Eagle, awarded type certification by June 1997. The Eagle was marketed as a high performance model combining the longer fuselage design with a 244 hp / 182 kW Continental IO-550 and two blade prop.

 

Gallery

Certification to Federal Aviation Administration USA 2A3:

M20C
1852, 1940 to 3466 (1962-66)
20-1186 and up (1977-1978)

M20E
1964-65

M20F
22-013 and up (1974)

M20G
680001 to 680164 (1968)

M20J
24-0084, 24-0764 to 24-1037 (1979-1980)
24-3079 and up (1989-1990)

M20M
1991-2003

M20R
All


Specifications: