New Powerplant Offers Fuel Alternative For GA

Mooney Airplane Company announced Friday at AirVenture that the company has entered into a joint engineering project with Rolls-Royce, to explore the use of the newly-announced RR500 turbine "to complement the current Mooney product line."

Mooney's participation in the General Aviation Manufacturers Association's Future Avgas Strategy and Transition (FAST) Plan and Mooney's experience in building high-performance airframes make the two companies logical partners for the new project.

The benefits of developing the RR500 to power a four-place aircraft include improved global fuel availability in emerging markets where 100LL is scarce to non-existent.

"The RR500 turbine introduced this week by Rolls-Royce represents the next step in our exploration of alternative fuel power for personal aircraft," said Mooney President and CEO Dennis Ferguson. "The rugged Mooney airframe is uniquely suited to accept the power of the Rolls-Royce engine and we're very excited about working with Rolls-Royce to examine to the possibility of bringing a Jet-A powered Mooney turboprop to the market in the future."

Mooney believes that an affordable turbine-powered four-place aircraft is an important segment of the market that is being overlooked. Such an aircraft configuration fills two growing voids in the market. First, a four-place turboprop represents a logical step for the tens of thousands of pilots now flying high-performance piston aircraft because the transition to flying a small turboprop will require no special type rating or unusual insurance requirements. Second, a Jet-A powered turbine provides the basis of a product that has global appeal.

More details will follow in the coming months as Mooney and Rolls-Royce work together to expand the scope of the engineering project and refine what the configuration of such an aircraft will be.

FMI: www.mooney.com, www.rolls-royce.com