Cirrus Design CEO Alan
Klapmeier confirmed today the company is working on a personal jet.
"We did announce…
earlier this summer that in fact, yes, we are going to do a personal
jet," said Klapmeier. "Which, of course, you all knew, but we
were pretending that it wasn’t quite decided. And we did at least get
the rest of the board of directors to agree."
He refused to give many
details about the aircraft but did say it would be powered by a single
engine and have an airframe parachute.
He said it "will be
the lowest, slowest, shortest-range jet in the market. Clearly from our
point of view, a personal jet is the target."
He said it would be aimed
at "existing SR20 and SR22 pilots who are ready to move up to a
more capable airplane."
Klapmeier also commented
on the next generation piston aircraft that Cessna briefly showed at EAA
AirVenture Oshkosh on Monday.
"We think it’s
great that they would be doing new airplanes. It will obviously mean
more competition for us.
"My general position
has always been, and continues to be, this industry is not about market
share. Our question is not how do we sell more airplanes than Cessna;
the question is, how do we all sell more airplanes than we used to the
year before.
"We’ve got to grow
this industry. It will be an interesting competition to see what they
really come up with. I will sit smugly in the background and assume that
they are doing it in response to us."
Cirrus also announced this week a turbo
normalization package that will be an STC factory addition to its SR22
aircraft, and it announced a series of programs to make it easier for
people to purchase and safely operate its aircraft.
