The first Cirrus SR22 was a big departure from conventional piston singles. A composite, fixed-gear high-performance beauty, the ’22 was an immediate sales success. Of course, the feature that got the most ink was the one you can’t see, the Chute. And the publicity wasn’t all good. Some pilots complained that the Chute was used to satisfy the airplane’s spin requirements. Others didn’t like that it was a standard and required feature. Yet others felt it would give pilots too much emotional license to do things in an airplane they might otherwise not do. More than a decade after the introduction to the Part 23 world of the whole airplane recovery parachute system, the very concept remains controversial.
(Photo Courtesy of Cirrus Aircraft)
