The Monkees most lucrative venture the three had ever seen in their days as the Monkees, far surpassing the money they had made in the 1960s. Nesmith had little financial need to join in Monkees-related projects, mostly as his mother Bette Nesmith Graham was the inventor of Liquid Paper, leaving Nesmith an inheritance of over $25 million upon her death in 1980. A new album by the touring trio, "Pool It!" (the Monkees' tenth), appeared the following year and was a moderate success. From 1986 to 1989, the Monkees would conduct major concert tours in the United States, Australia, Japan, and Europe.
Nesmith Cougar used the aircraft as a troubled youth project to encourage teens to work together toward a goal. When a modified Cougar won an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) design competition in 1963, that organization took over selling plans. Rights to the design were eventually purchased by Acro Sport. The aircraft shape was influenced by the Beechcraft Staggerwing and Wittman Tailwind. The name came from the college of Nesmith's daughter, the University of Houston, whose athletic mascot is a cougar. Nesmith Cougar The Nesmith Cougar is a light aircraft that was developed in the United States in the 1950s and marketed for