But it’s saved more than 200 people so far, and has worked even when deployed at just under 400 feet above the ground. That’s about a quarter of the height of the top of the Willis Tower.”Ĭirrus has continued with the innovative ways the Klapmeier brothers set out with 37 years ago. The industry at the time frowned on the idea, because the chute weighs about 75 pounds, which means a sacrifice of fuel and cargo capacity. And there are trees and telephone poles to deal with too. Everything might look flat from the air, but it isn’t really. Our idea is that even in the unlikely event of an off-airport landing, you should never try to land in a field. “They developed the parachute, which is standard on all our aircraft, including the Vision Jet. “Alan had a mid-air collision that he walked away from,” Nielsen explained. The strong focus on safety came in those early days as well. “But they quickly decided that was too complex, and moved on to the SR20.” That was an innovative single-piston engine composite production airplane that debuted in the late-1990s. It was an all composite, pusher-propeller five-passenger kit that first flew in 1988. “Their first product was the VK-30,” said Nielsen. Rebuilding that old Cessna got them started on the mechanical side of things, which eventually led them to start their company. Image courtesy Cirrus Aircraft - Photo by Ed Hicks
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