The Mooney M-18 is a single seat low wing monoplane designed by Albert W. Mooney. The fuselage is welded steel tubing fabric covered; the wings are of wooden construction, plywood and fabric covered; the engine has a formed metal cowl; and the tricicle landing gear is fully retractable.

The cockpit contains a slideing canopy and a full set of standard instruments including airspeed indicator, compass, altimeter, tachometer, oil pressure gage, oil temperature gage, ammeter, water temperature gage and fuel gage: all for $1,600! Assuredly, here is an aeronautical bargain! Whats is the secret of this low price for a full size airplane that gives its pilot so much? The answer lies in a number of engineering and production factors, chief of which is the use of a Crosley Cobra engine, the same engine used in the Crosley automobile.

The tiny engine develops only 25 hp. but Mooney believes and has prooved that is enough to haul one man around in the sky. The engine is geared down to the prop by a set of "V" belts which run over a small disc on the engine drive shaft and a large disc on the prop shaft located directly above it. A Sensenich fixed pich prop of laminated wood is used.

But the M-18 is more than just a cheap airplane. First, it is one of the most stable and safe airplanes ever offered. Because it has only one passenger and its fuel supply is located directly on the c.g., no trim changes are ever required in flight. This means the M-18 is in perfect trim both power-on and lower-off and that no trim tabs are required, removing these otherwise important control from the list of things the pilot must think about.

All the trim of the airplane is handled by the controllable horizontal stabilizer, the setting of which is interconnected with the landing flaps and cockpit controls. This provides exceptionally good stall characteristics. The stall is preceded by ample warning, and after it has developed there is no tendency of the airplane to roll in either direction.; it merely drops its nose and recovers with only slight loss od altitude. Due to this gentle behavior in the stall, Mooney says the plane does not need or use any kind of stall indicator.

The Mooney M-18 is the 18th Mooney design in a 20 year career in the aviation business. It all began back in May 1929 when Don A. Luscombe formed Mono Aircraft Corp. in Moline, Ill. His chief engineer was Clayton Folkerts - who later designed a series of racing planes - and the company produced the Monocoupe (later to became a separate company and now located in Florida), Monocoach, Monoprep and Monosport airplanes.

After a promising start, the depression forced Luscombe to sell the company to Knight K. Culver, who changed the name to Dart Mfg. Co. (after the name of a promising new design then on the drafting boards) and moved the firm to Columbus, O. Meanwhile, Don Luscombe started the new Luscombe Airplane Corp. in Trenton, N.J. and produced the famed Luscombe Phantom in 1934 and the first of the Silvaire series in 1937. (This company was later purchased by L.H.P.Klots and moved to Dallas, Tex, where it is now producing the famed Luscombe two and four-place all metal aircraft.)

The Dart company struggled along until 1934 when it was dissolved and a new company, Culver Aircraft Corp. , formed. By this time Albert W. Mooney had risen the position of chief engineer and had designed the first Culver Dart lightplane. The basic design grew into the well known series of Air Force and Navy target planes, the PQ-8, PQ-14, TDC and TD2C models. Shortly after the first of these target aircraft got into production, Walter Beech, of the company bearing his name, bought the Culver company and moved it to Wichita, near the Beech factory. C.G.Yankey was named President, and Mooney continued as Chief Engineer.

Shortly after V-G Day the Culver V postwar model was announced and placed into production. The design incorporated most of the ideas Mooney had long felt were required for a safe, economical and simple-to-fly personal aircraft. However, partly due to high production costs, a recession in lighplane salesmarkets and a $3750 price tag on the airplane, it did not prove a commercial success and the Culver Aircraft Corp. was dissolved.

Last year rumors grew that Mooney was flying around in a special little single-seater he had built for himself. The tiny plane atrcted so much attention that Mooney formed a company to produce de design in quantity with the financia l assistance of his old boss Yankey, now a Beech vice president. Yankee is President of Mooney Aircraft Inc., Mooney is vice president and chief engineer.

The company has a small plant in its own landing field east of Wichita. The Mooney M-18 was recently awarded its Approved Type Certificate by the CAA and plans have been already been made for production of 50 airplanes by the end of the year.

The M-18 is a small airplane standing one shoulder high to the average height man. It has a span of 27 ft., lenght of 18 ft, and a height to top of rudder od 9 ft. 9 in. It weights only 700 lb. fully loaded.

Extensive flight testing by chief test pilot Bill taylor has proved the plane capable of 85 mph cruising speed and a top speed of slightly over 100 mph. It has an inicial rate-of-climb of 450 ft. per min. and a service ceiling of 12,000 ft. Although its fuel tank olds only 8 gals. of gasoline, this is enough to give the plane a range of 400 miles, which is 50 miles per gallon!