The Mooney International Corporation (formerly Mooney Aviation Company, Inc. and the Mooney Aircraft Company) is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Kerrville, Texas, United States. It manufactures single-engined piston-powered general aviation aircraft. Through its history the company has had many American owners and subsequent bankruptcies. Mooney International was purchased in 2013 by a Chinese private equity, real-estate development company, the Meijing Group who ran it until 2020, when it was purchased by a group of Mooney aircraft owners under US Financial, LLC of Wyoming. Among Mooney's achievements are: the first pressurized single-engined, piston-powered aircraft, the M22 Mustang, production of the fastest civilian single-engine piston-powered aircraft in the world, the M20TN Acclaim Type S, the first production aircraft to achieve on , the M20J 201 and the fastest transcontinental flight in a single-engine piston-powered production aircraft, the M20K 231. Many Mooney aircraft have the signature vertical stabilizer with its vertical leading edge and swept trailing edge that gives the illusion of being forward-swept. History The company was founded in 1929 by Albert Mooney and his brother Arthur. Albert Mooney had his first job in aviation at the age of 19 in 1925 when he worked briefly for Alexander Aircraft Company in Denver, Colorado. He worked for the Marshall/Montague Monoplane Company in Marshall, Missouri, in 1926, but the company had financial difficulties, and Al soon returned to Alexander, where he designed the Alexander Bullet. He was joined by his brother Arthur, known as Art. Early in 1929 Al was invited to meet with some financial backers in Wichita, Kansas, and the Mooney Aircraft Corporation was established with financial backing from the Bridgeport Machine Company. The company owned an airfield and some buildings which could be used to design and build aircraft. Seven months later, Albert's M-5 airplane was test-flown. Due to the Great Depression, the Mooney Aircraft Corporation went bankrupt in 1930. The Mooney brothers worked for other aircraft companies, including the Culver Aircraft Company, from then through World War II. On June 18, 1948, Albert started Mooney Aircraft Incorporated in Wichita, along with Charles Yankey, Art Mooney and W. L. McMahon. The first aircraft produced by the new Mooney company was the small single-seat Mooney Mite M-18. It was designed to appeal to the thousands of fighter pilots leaving military service. Some thought the Mooney Mite looked so much like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 that they called it the "Texas Messerschmitt".