As an aircraft company, Mooney has been down and out and resurrected more times than a dried-out Betty Ford graduate with a reserved parking space near the door. Nothing, it seems-not frightful market conditions, not inept management and not even great clouds of plastic airplanes-can drive a stake though the heart of what has to be the scrappiest airplane company in the universe. Thats due almost entirely to one thing: Mooneys are a fundamentally sound design.

Now comes Mooney with yet another reiteration in the new M20TN Acclaim. Straight to the

chase: The Acclaim is as good as anything Mooney has ever built, maybe better. Its among the fastest, if not the fastest, production piston airplane and its every bit the value of a new Cirrus or Columbia. Why Mooney doesnt sell more like three times more is a puzzlement to us. Cirrus may be right; maybe every airplane needs a parachute.

Heretofore, Mooneys recent slam dunk sales hit was the Ovation, which we always opined needed turbonormalizing to capitalize on its low drag, decent payload and generous fuel capacity. And thats exactly what the Acclaim is: a turbonormalized Ovation.

Airframe