General Aviation

While a normal Mooney M20 would be quite a bland aircraft for the list, this one is different. Rather than the “common” engine options this was spiced up with a with a specialty engine from Porsche

Porsche famous for its flat 6 configuration engines spanning decades of production took on a new engine, directly intended at the general aviation market with the PFM 3200. Being developed in the mid 80’s. A few airframes where tried out but the Mooney M20L was the only one with a small production run of 41 units in 1988-1989. Small by car numbers but common in the GA industry. Porsche ran into significant financial troubles in the late 80’s and exited the GA powerplant industry.

I’ve seen one a few times at KAPA centennial before, with its unique pointed nose.

I got to fly a standard issue Mooney once, they where extremely cramped inside but had stunning performance.

An excellent in depth article can be found in: https://www.pca.org/news/porsche-powered-airplane-the-story-of-my-mooney-porsche-pfm

Another: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2024/history/porsche-aircraft-engine-pfm-mooney-35243.html

Excessive general aviation law suits of the late 80’s / early 90’s also did not help. Still one what have wondered what could have happened if conditions where more favorable.

Working on Corvair auto to aero engine conversions for WW back in the 2000’s I was amazed at how much push back there is in aviation community for anything Auto going into Aero. Take the identification stickers off the M20 shown in this article to the naysayers and they would likely not have a clue the engines genesis was automotive based. Particularly if you said it was a standard, un modified certified Mooney model.

Quite a few YouTube Videos

With 41 units produced one may come up for sale from time to time but would take a real die hard to take the project on as the PFM 3200 was mostly unique part’s requiring one off custom builds to keep it flying beyond basic M20 airframe hardware.

No true M20 plan hits on outerzone for an RC option.

Amazon does have a few generic Mooney options

Mooney M20 Typography Airplane Art History Pilot T-Shirt Premium T-Shirt

Orldit Mooney Aircraft Flag Men's 170g Combed Cotton Short Sleeve T-Shirt

Orldit Mooney Aircraft Hat Adjustable Baseball Cap Cotton Cowboy Hat, Fashionable for Man Woman

Mooney Parking Only All Others Will Be Towed Plane Jet Pilot Aircraft Novelty Garage Wall Decor Aluminum 8"x12" Sign Plate

#AM

The Bellanca Viking was developed in the late 1960’s and with 1,356 aircraft produced they can still be seen at some airports and there are usually a few at the major air shows. It’s DNA can be trased back to the Cruisair that first flew in the late 1930’s. Production run was 1968 – 1975

I found this great exposed view on the https://aerospaceblog.wordpress.com web site. Much thanks to there information for putting this article together.

While its contemporaries at the time from Piper, Cessna and Beechcraft where all Aluminum, the Viking featured a welded steel tube fuselage, wood wings and fabric covering. Unfortunately wood wings require TLC storage or long term environment to last compared to all Aluminum aircraft that are still flying 6 decades later and are still in production.

Viking’s do come up for sale on the various aviation used aircraft web sites. If you have serious interest in one I highly recommend a prebuy with an A&P with wooden aircraft experience.

Likely because of its lower production numbers & a mid 70’s end of production it seems to have a style that is lost in the see it every day PA-28’s & 172’s.

I found a great historical article on the Viking on the same aerospace blog above beyond the coverage of a wiki page: https://aerospaceblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/bellanca-story-viking-17-30/ Its well worth the visit.

Power options looked to always be 500+ cubic inch variants of Continental and Lycoming’s

Ownership of Bellanca has changed hands a few times and has had its share of up and downs but it looks like it still functions today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AviaBellanca_Aircraft

https://bellancaaircraft.com/

There are a good amount of YouTube videos on the Viking:

The Popular Microsoft Flight sim has a very detailed Viking from Lionheart Creations:

Dedicated web page for the Lionheart Creations Viking: https://lionheartsimulations.com/super_viking.html

The Lionheart Creations Viking 58 page POH pdf for the MS flight sim can be found on: https://downloads.justflight.com/support/manuals/SV_300_Super_Viking_POH.pdf PDF looks like it could offer good pointers on flying the actual thing as it has a very accurate 3D interior with functioning buttons and controls.

Amazon has a few offerings: