Despite strong sales, Mooney was short of cash. The company went into chapter 7 bankruptcy in early 1969, and was acquired by American Electronics Laboratories and then Butler Aviation International. Sales that year were less than half of the previous year's figures, although a new version of the M20E Chaparral was released with electrically operated flaps and landing gear. Butler Aviation also acquired the troubled Aerostar company and combined it with Mooney in an attempt to save both. The Mooney name was dropped in 1970, as was the M20 designation; the planes were called Aerostars.