What should an aircraft manufacturer do with a talented engineering team that just wrapped up the successful certification test program for a jet that would go on to win the Collier Trophy and Flying Innovation Award in the same year? One option would be to put them straight back to work developing the next iteration of the airplane. That’s just what Cirrus Aircraft chose to do in early 2017 while the ink was still fresh on the SF50 Vision Jet’s FAA approval documents. The result is a second-generation product featuring a multitude of technology advances, creature-comfort enhancements and performance improvements that elevate the industry’s first single-engine personal jet to a whole new level of goodness.
If you’ve kept up with Cirrus through the years, you understand the company is seriously committed to the mantra of continuous product improvement. The Generation 6 Cirrus SR22 high-performance piston single introduced two years ago, though based on the same basic design as the original airplane certified in 2001, is a significantly different — i.e. better — product.
