Kenny Meines of Turbine Motor Conversions brought something pretty impressive to AirVenture last year, his own custom Murphy Moose with a Pratt & Whitney PT-6 hanging on the nose. It’s a real backcountry rocket ship, building on Murphy’s solid foundation by kicking things up a notch, or two. Meines said his converted aircraft pulls off 200 mph cruise speeds to the tune of about 25 gallons an hour of Jet A, a stone’s throw away from the fuel burn of the handsome (but slower) M14 radial engine seen on other Mooses.
Thanks to the homegrown nature of the Moose, builders can tailor their aircraft to the mission, whether that means leaving it with a stock 100 gallons in the wings, or grabbing Meines’ new project: A 50-gallon belly tank to add another couple hours of cruise. Of course, like any whiz-bang turboprop installation, it doesn’t come cheap. Meines said there’s a pretty good selection of mid-time PT6-20s out there on the market, which make for a pretty good engine in a private aircraft.
Moose pilots can budget about $250,000 for the conversion and come off unsurprised at the cash register. Meines said the Murphy family is seeing a resurgence, thanks to its off-airport performance and affordable build. If the lookie-loos at AirVenture were any indication, a Murphy is a real head-turner on the flight line, especially when you add a turbine to the front of it!
Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced well over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including over 2500 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Holland Lee. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published well over a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.
Convective SIGMET A weather advisory concerning convective weather significant to the safety of all aircraft. Convective SIGMETs are issued for tornadoes, lines of thunderstorms, e>[...]
Aero Linx: United Flying Octogenarians WELCOME to a most extraordinary group of aviators, the United Flying Octogenarians (UFO). Founded in 1982 with just a handful of pilots, we h>[...]
Pilot’s Decision To Attempt Takeoff With Frost Covering The Airplane’s Wings Analysis: The pilot of the light sport airplane was preparing to depart for a cross-country>[...]
“We’ve paid for the cable line’s repair for the customer and have apologized for the inconvenience this caused them...” Source: Some followup info from an A>[...]
Coupled Approach An instrument approach performed by the aircraft autopilot, and/or visually depicted on the flight director, which is receiving position information and/or steerin>[...]
ANN's Daily Aero-Term (12.01.25): Convective SIGMET
See All