Mooney M-18 Mite – Plane & Pilot Magazine | Aviation

 Would these pilots returning from the war want to own and fly a personal airplane, and if so, what would it look like? The Mooney M-18 Mite (Al’s 18th design) was the answer to the question. With its unique forward-tail design, retractable landing gear, and classic lines, it began the design philosophy for the over 11,000 Mooneys to follow.

Al Mooney’s journey to the diminutive M-18 Mite was not a straight line. A failed 1929 attempt to form the first Mooney Aircraft Company led to stints as the chief designer at Bellanca Aircraft and then Culver Aircraft. After graduating high school, he came up through the engineering ranks as a draftsman; Mooney’s designs were practical and efficient.

Like so many designers caught up in the march to war, his 1937 design of a two-seat Culver Cadet trainer soon morphed into a series of single-seat, optionally piloted, drone aircraft used to train anti-aircraft gunners. The PQ-14 Cadet was the most prolific of these tricycle gear (easier to take off and land under radio control?) wood and fabric planes.

Sadly, for postwar aviation enthusiasts, or happily if you were a U.S. Army or Navy gunnery student, most of the 2,000 or so Culver Cadets were shot down by friendly fire before the war…