GUY NORRIS / PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA
Cirrus Design has delayed plans to start delivering a diesel-powered variant of the SR22 from this year to mid-2003 as it focuses on more pressing priorities, such as the all-electric SR20. The company is discussing development alternatives with diesel engine maker SMA, which could include the EADS/Renault/Snecma joint venture leading the supplemental type-certification (STC) programme for the diesel-powered variant.
SMA, which has completed assembly of the first SR305 engine for Cirrus's proposed SR21tdi project, is developing the STC for the SR305-powered Cessna 182 and for EADS Socata. One option, says Cirrus, could be for SMA to do the STC on the SR21tdi.
"Basically, we are now a lot more comfortable that SMA has not only a certificated engine, but also an engine ready to go into production," says sales support director Ian Bentley. "But it is a little unrealistic to think of deliveries by year-end, maybe it will be more like six to eight months from now."
Cirrus is fully occupied preparing to switch over production to the all-electric SR20 in January. As part of the switchover, it is developing more cost-effective production techniques, including larger production batches to reduce overheads when changing assembly between the SR20 and SR22. A total of 60 SR20s will be produced in the first batch of 2003, for example, compared with five or 10 previously.
Cirrus is also developing more upgrades and improvements to the SR20/22, including ice protection, a datalink capability and a glass cockpit. "The SMA engine has to fit into the research and development schedule," says Bentley, who adds that the large order backlog also reduces the urgency.
Six hundred Cirrus aircraft have been delivered and the backlog is "around 350", says president Alan Klapmeier. "We hit the two a day [production] rate in July/August and we will hold that, or even lower it slightly through December. We expect to review that and maybe move it up to three a day in late 2003 when we expect the economic recovery to begin."
The 170kW (230hp) SMA SR305 diesel is also being developed for the MX-9-230, a derivative of the Maule Air M-7 five-seat light aircraft.
Source: Flight International
