The M10 program provided significant educational benefits for the company, Mooney said, but it has elected not to continue development. “We have benefited a lot from the research and development program in Chino, California, on the project that was known as the M10 proof-of-concept airplane,” Mooney CEO Vivek Saxena told AIN on the opening day of Sun ’n‘ Fun 2017.

The M10 was a three-seat, carbon-fiber composite, single-engine aircraft with sidestick controls. It was introduced to the public at the Zhuhai airshow in Zhuhai, China, in 2014, as Mooney’s future offering to the flight training industry.

The company originally planned to manufacture the aircraft with a Continental CD-135 turbodiesel engine and had developed an upgraded version, the M10J, with retractable gear and a 155-hp engine. (That aircraft was never built.) The airplane was always intended for the Chinese flight training market, and manufacturing was originally planned to take place in China.

“We learned a lot about controls, cooling and aerodynamics, and all of that knowledge is going into what we are calling our next-generation piston aircraft. When that will be certified—and what specific features it will have—will have to wait,” he added.