msobota

Between 1987 and 1989, Porsche provided Mooney Aircraft Corp with a 217hp 911 derivative aircraft engine that was used in the Mooney PFM pictured here. Here is a picture of the airplane. The powerplant was considered ahead of its time in many ways but because of its relatively low power and high weight, it never caught on. From what I understand, Porsche is replacing the few remaining Porsche PFM engines remaining in the fleet with standard aircraft engines.

Does anybody have a good picture of the Mooney Porsche PFM engine or other pictures of the aircraft?

Mike Sobota

andrew911

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the plane, but remember the advertisement- if you bought the airplane, you got a 911 carrera for a 12 months lease for free...an interesting incentive throw-in.

RJT

I have an Official Porsche Press Kit for the Mooney. I've been meaning to find the box it's still in.......We moved three years ago! I was wondering if there would be any interest in it on Ebay. Alot of people have never even heard of it. And they don't believe you unlees you have a picture to back it up! I'll try to find it tommorow.......

RJT

Here's the pics from the Press Kit ...

msobota

Awesome. I am really happy to see that. Too bad the engine didn't put out at least 300hp! Thanks for digging those up.

Mike Sobota

msobota

I especially like the top view with the prop on where you can see the Porsche signature fan housing at the airplane firewall.

Mike

CDiercks

That engine is very interesting. It is the same 3164cc out of the Carrera, but used the CIS system like the 3.0 SC engines, and had a twin plug ignition. It still was able to produce 217hp with a CIS system.

RJT

The spec sheet shows there were actually three versions of the motor. Model NO1 produced 209hp with a Comp Ratio of 9.2 : 1. Model NO3 was 217hp with a 10.5 : 1. And the third was a turbo Model TO3 that put out 240hp with a 8.5 : 1 compression. The system was wired with 24 volts. Take off RPM was 5300. Fuel consumption was 12.4 gal/hr at 70% power and 14.7 gal/hr at 80% power!

Doug&Julie

Motor Trend magazine tested a Porsche powered Cesna (?sp) a few years back....an interesting read. I thought it ironic that they were raving at how quiet the plane was compared to other motors!

A4_Pilot

Sadly Porsche can't afford to continue to produce parts for the Porsche-Mooney engine, and they are replacing all of the Porsche-Mooneys with standard Lycomings.
For those of you who may be interested, Mooney really is the Porsche of the airplane world. They build very fast aircraft (about 220 mph) designed to fly on quite small engines and power outputs. The Porsche Mooney was ahead of it's time in that it had a single power lever with FADEC (Full-Authority-Digital-Engine-Control) or some similar system that enabled them to eliminate the propeller and mixture controls.
I last saw one of these rare and beautiful airplanes last March. The owner still had the original Porsche engine in it, but he was lamenting that he would lose the engine when the engine was next overhauled.
Still, perhaps when more of these engines appear on the market we can look forward to them taking on a new lease of life in the backs of 911s...

Ed Bighi

A year ago I heard about the replacement of the PFM motors. It is depressing really. I don't think it is so much a parts production issue since in all actuality, most of the parts are common Carrera parts. With the exception of a few like the gear reduction, dual ignition and maybe the timing gears instead of the chain . I think the real reason is they don't feel like doing the FAA required rebuilds any longer. Whatever the reason, I wonder if there is any possibility of obtaining one of those for street use. I would love to run one in my car just for the hell of it. After all, just what are they going to do with them. I wish I knew someone inside Porsche to find out.

msobota

It would sure be nice if somebody would donate an original Mooney PFM to be placed in a museum. It signifies how difficult it is to move forward in general aviation. With so few units being sold - the issues of weight and balance so critical and the mode of transportation so uniquely unforgiving, it is no surprise that Porsche was unable to be successful in the general aviation engine market. The main reason for the lack of success? The Mooney PFM was not fast enough - did not haul enough weight and it was more expensive. Shortly after the PFM, Mooney introduced the TLS with a 270hp turbocharged Lycoming engine that weighed less than Porsches' 217hp engine.

This year, Mercedes has entered the market with a Theilert 170hp turbocharged diesel. SMA Renault has a certified line of turbocharged diesels and Bombardier is going to introduce a couple of turbocharged diesels themselves.

The advantage of the diesel is that it has fewer moving parts - long time to rebuild and runs on Jet Fuel which is available worldwide.

All of these new designs use single lever controls like the PFM Mooney.

Mike Sobota