Cirrus Prepping First Production Vision Jet for Flight

The first four production Cirrus Jets are nearing completion at the company’s factory in Duluth, Minnesota, as the company prepares for initial customer deliveries later this year, Cirrus Aircraft president Pat Waddick said at a press conference at AERO Friedrichshafen in Germany.

The first production SF50 Vision Jet is about to make its maiden flight, Waddick said, noting that four test airplanes have accumulated some 1,700 hours. Cirrus has received about 600 orders and expects to deliver around 50 airplanes in the first full year of manufacturing, with 125 jets per year the production goal afterward, he said.

At the AERO press conference, Waddick showed a video of the SF50 canopy mock-up drop from a helicopter to test the jet’s full-airframe BRS parachute. The SF50’s automatic flight control system will be an integral part in the CAPS deployment sequence and will pitch the airplane into slower flight if the pilot commands a CAPS deployment outside the system’s airspeed envelope, he noted.

The $2 million single-engine jet is scheduled to enter the market in this year’s third quarter.