On Tuesday Cirrus Aircraft announced that longtime company employee Pat Waddick would assume the reins as president and chief operating officer of the company while co-founder Dale Klapmeier will remain as chief executive officer.
While such moves often result from performance challenges, in this case, it’s the opposite. Cirrus’ recent launch of the Generation Five SR22 has been a huge success — orders are already stretched out several months — and the reception of the new model has been glowing. (Look for a full flight report on it in the May issue of Flying.) Klapmeier called the G5 “the right product at the right time.” He said the last five years had been a dramatic learning experience for the company in driving down costs and driving up quality, and that the time was right for the launch of the G5 and the focus on the development and certification of the Cirrus Vision jet with Waddick at the helm.
