I took a tour of the Mooney factory last week. I was suprise, very suprised, at the amount of "hand built" and "hand fabricated" work the process of building a Mooney airplane is. The outsourcing of parts amounts to nuts, bolts, engine, and aviaonics. That's it. The rest of the plane is either hand cut (fuse), hand welded (fuse), hand rivited(all), or using simple hydraulic presses and lathes to produce aluminum parts. There are two computer CNC machines that put out some parts for sub-assemblies, but that is it for automation. Fiberglass is done in house. Same for wiring, painting as is everything else. What I'm getting at here is building a Mooney is much like building an RV. The work is done by hand, one rivet at a time, and there is nothing fast about it. A single day shift, I was told, could produce seven Acclaims and Ovations a month. I was also very impressed with the attention to detail. The quality control division of the company is rather large and in charge so the details are covered on the construction of the plane.
Just my observations.
McStealth
Just my observations.
McStealth
