2-840-047 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Low-wing, vee-tail motorglider, beige with purple, red, and orange trim; single-seat aircraft built from parts sent to builder by mail-order kit; mounted on roadable trailer with wings detached (A19940029000). Schoolteacher John Monnett designed the Moni (mo-nee) during the early 1980s, and then coined the term 'air recreation vehicle' to describe this airplane. Monnett's design almost captured all the merits that so many leisure pilots longed to find in one aircraft. The Moni looked great just sitting on the ramp. It performed well, and someone reasonably handy with average shop tools could construct one in their own garage. The design had much going for it, but like so many homebuilt aircraft before and since, a few key engineering lapses in the design, plus problems with the engine and propeller, relegated the Moni to the category of homebuilt aircraft that promise much in design but fail to deliver. Harold C. Weston generously donated his Moni to the National Air and Space Museum in April 1992. Weston built the airplane himself and flew it more than 40 hours.