Al Mooney
| Albert W. Mooney | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 April 1906 Denver, Colorado |
| Died | 7 May 1986 (aged 80) Dallas, Texas |
| Known for | Mooney Aircraft Company |
Albert W. "Al" Mooney (12 April 1906 – 7 May 1986) was a self-taught aircraft designer. Al, along with his brother Arthur, was responsible for the startup of the Mooney Aircraft Company which started with the M-18 Mite.
Al Mooney's technical background stemmed from his father's job as an engineer building railroad trestles for the Denver & Rio Grande. In the time spent with his father, Al learned the concepts of drafting and layout work. His initial interest in airplane design began while still in grade school and continued to grow as he progressed to high school. While in high school, he realized he excelled at mathematics, and many possibilities lie within it. Seeking information on aircraft, Al asked his teacher what he should study that would best allow him to design safe airplanes. Al's teacher responded to him by saying there was no such thing as a safe aircraft and recommended he wait until college before pursuing the topic any more. Realizing his current schooling would give him very slim chance of learning the things he wanted to know, he began spending time at the Denver Public Library, where he read all of the available handbooks for pilots and designers.
After graduating from high school, Al's plans of attending the Colorado School of Mines were changed by an encounter with a Swallow biplane that flew over an area where he was working. Following the aircraft to the local airfield, Al noticed several mistakes in the aircraft rigging which he gladly offered to help fix. After rerigging the plane, which was flown by J. Don Alexander, he was offered a job at the Alexander Aircraft Company. At the age of 19, Al took the job as an assistant to the chief engineer and draftsman at the Alexander Company in Denver. His early years proved unfruitful with his assistance on an eventually failing design. Finally, Al got the chance to build the M-1, also known as the Long Wing Eaglerock, a plane of his own design. While the airplane had some success as a trainer, its success was not enough to keep him at the Alexander company. In 1926, after spending some time working for Montague, where he designed his M-2, Al started taking his first flying lessons. Eventually, after the financial demise of Montegue, Al returned to Alexander. In 1928, he became the chief engineer at Alexander. During the time as chief engineer, he was responsible for several advances in the field of aircraft design, primarily through design of the Bullet, which was a low- wing airplane with relatively high speeds and a patented retractable landing gear.
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