Cirrus Aircraft has delivered its 6,000th SR-series piston single, 16 years after the first member of the four-seat aircraft family – the SR20 – entered service.
The all-composite SR20 was the first certificated general aviation aircraft to be equipped with an emergency parachute – the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) – as standard. This feature is designed to lower the aircraft safely to the ground after a loss of control, structural failure or mid-air collision. Cirrus says CAPS has helped save the lives of more than 100 people since its introduction.
The SR20 was joined in 2001 by its upgraded and more powerful stablemate, the SR22. The turbocharged SR22T completed the line-up nine years later.
According to Cirrus, “the SR-series maintained its position in 2014 as the best-selling four/five-place aircraft in the world for the 12th year in a row [with 308 shipments worldwide].”
The SR22 series accounts for the bulk of the demand.
At the height of the market in 2006, Cirrus recorded deliveries of more than 720 SR types.
Meanwhile, the Duluth, Minnesota-based airframer has sold an undisclosed number of SR20s to Saint Louis University’s aerospace training school, Parks College. Deliveries of the $360,000 aircraft are scheduled to begin imminently.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
