![]() ![]() The SR22 G6 Perspective+ upon which the limited-edition series is based debuted in early 2017, and there has been speculation as to when a new model will land on the scene. For various reasons, the company hasn’t given too much fanfare to previous milestones, but with the 8,000-SR mark looming on the horizon-and, frankly, a serious need to have some fun after the gloom of 2020-the team decided to celebrate in the way that a company with serious marketing chops would: Let’s make a special edition! Stephen YeatesĪs of 2019 (the latest data from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association at press time), 7,645 SR models had been delivered. The composite four-blade prop has Volt striping on its tips. When the turbo model, the SR22T, came on the scene in 2010, it boosted the SR22′s sales, which had dropped by 60 percent following the economic recession in 2008. The outflow hit a high point in 20, with 721 and 710 total Cirrus aircraft, respectively, out the door (including the short-lived SRV, of which only 37 models were made). Having flown several iterations of the SR20 and SR22, I’m struck by the evolution in the intervening years that has transpired into the latest models for 2021 it’s appropriate to the company’s foundations, to explore the potential of single-engine aircraft.Ĭirrus Aircraft pumped out the SR series at a rate that has fluctuated with the economy, starting with nine SR20s delivered in 1999, 95 SR20s the following year and 124 SR22s in 2001. I changed course after that first visit to Cirrus, pursuing a track in aviation journalism instead of a sole focus on flight training. The limited-edition paint scheme makes for an aircraft that brightens up even the cloudiest days. That promise back in 1999 has been fulfilled-in the carbon fiber of the airframe in front of me, as well as in the Cirrus Vision Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, that has encased into brick and mortar the commitment to training driven by a core Cirrus philosophy. ![]() ![]() Now, almost 22 years later, I’m like Marty McFly stepping out of the DeLorean into the future (in this case, greeting the 8,000th SR-series airplane to fly). Two flights, actually: one with instructor Gary Black to get accustomed to the airplane’s unique stall-resistant aerodynamic characteristics and one with test pilot Scott Anderson to solidify that first acquaintance. As part of those 72 hours that tested my potential hardiness in a North Country winter, I had the chance to fly N204CD, just after the SR20′s original FAA certification the previous October. I’d been invited to Duluth to interview with Cirrus Design’s nascent training department-before their team determined that they would contract with the University of North Dakota for the airplane’s initial courseware. On that day, I was driving a Sube around Duluth in between massive snowbanks, engaged to think through a similar puzzle: how to train pilots to fly a brand-new concept in airplanes, the Cirrus SR20. As an assistant editor in Jeppesen’s aviation-courseware department, I’d been thinking through the mechanics of flight training every day, working to translate abstract concepts into print and onto the screen. The bitter cold of a February day in Minnesota in 1999 etched itself in my memory like frost on the windshield of an old Subaru hatchback. ![]()
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