![]() The first sub-$200,000 SR20s, it’s widely believed, were sold at a loss, and Cirrus didn’t start improving its profitability until it started being able to produce airplanes with many fewer labor-hours invested in each one. Part of that is a reflection of Cirrus getting better and more efficient at building airplanes. It should also be noted that over the years the SR20 has become a much better airplane. Not to mention the far nicer interior of the Cirrus. And it was about 10 knots faster than the comparably powerful Piper Arrow on around the same amount of fuel and without the cost, risk and complications of the retractable gear. It took noticeably longer than it would have in the SR22, but that was for a maximum-range trip. I did fly it out, and it was a great trip. A bit surprised by their apologetic attitude, I responded that I would be very happy indeed to fly the 20 to Florida. When a minor mechanical issue grounded my airplane just before the trip, the folks at PlaneSmart sheepishly offered me an SR20 instead. A few years ago I had reserved an SR22 with my shared-ownership provider PlaneSmart to fly from Texas to Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida, with a friend. The SR20 was simply overshadowed by its star teammate. There just didn’t seem to be that many of those customers. From the start, it has felt that this 200-horsepower cruiser was a solid performer that was a great fit for a certain kind of customer. It wasn’t that Cirrus wasn’t trying to sell 20s. The SR22 outsold the 20 by a margin that some years approached 10 to 1. But the lure of the 180-knot SR22 made the 150-knot-on-a-good-day SR20 look a lot less tempting. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the SR20 on the contrary, it was pretty much everything the company said it would be. That said, with Cirrus’ introduction shortly after of the substantially more powerful and better performing SR22, the SR20 suddenly seemed like a footnote. The fact is that we were all just getting to know the airplane, the company and, indeed, the whole concept of the fast, composite, fixed-gear four-seater. ![]() And it might be a little hard for those of us who have flown the two Cirrus airplanes to remember just how unrefined those first-generation airplanes were, but this, too, is true. It’s a little hard, 12 years after the fact, to remember the kind of controversy these features - the chute, in particular - generated, but they did. Editor-in-chief Mac McClellan flew the airplane and weighed in on such eye-opening new features as the BRS whole-airplane recovery parachute system, the down-and-welded landing gear (unusual at the time for such a fast single) and the signature Cirrus side-yoke. June 2010 - BACK IN 1998 FLYING sent ace photographer Paul Bowen to Chicago to photograph a revolutionary new airplane, the Cirrus SR20.
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