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altitude. Sales of all small airplanes hit an all-time high of 18,000 in 1978 but
dropped to 2,600 just five years later, hurt in particular by liability issues. Things
got so bad that in 1986, Cessna temporarily stopped production of single -engine
aircraft.
Unlike other new-entrant designers such as Lancair and Diamond Aircraft —
which sell similar high-performance, artfully designed planes — Cirrus has set its
sights on the granddaddy of airplane builders, the venerable 76-year-old Cessna
Aircraft Co. of Wichita, Kans. The Textron subsidiary has sold more than 23,000
of its Skylane 182s, and the distinctive, high-wing, small-propeller planes are so
ubiquitous that there probably isn't a pilot who hasn't flown a Cessna at least
once.
Cirrus is not just taking on Cessna at home. The manufacturer sold its 100th
plane in Europe last May, bringing to $27 million Cirrus' revenues there. (That
month the company also sold its first plane to a Russian customer, who
requested extra tires, spark plugs and chewing gum.) As in the domestic market,
plane owners overseas act as an auxiliary sales force. At the company's
celebration of its 100th European sale in June, more than two-thirds of Cirrus'
European owners flew their planes in to meet the others.
Cirrus is planning to take control of the skies by not actually thinking like an
airplane maker, says CEO Alan Klapmeier, 44, who along with his brother Dale,
42, founded the company. The two — who started tinkering with user-friendly,
homemade planes in their parents' dairy barn near Baraboo, Wis., in the mid-
1980s — created Cirrus from a clean sheet of paper. "Plane design and
performance hadn't really changed in decades," says Alan, a physics major, who
is determined to make flying more accessible. "We were convinced there was a
market for a very safe, smartly designed, high-performance airplane. We thought
of building a plane that was as easy to drive as a very good car."
Cirrus started with one word: plastics. The airplanes (the SRV, the slightly more
sophisticated SR20 and the top-of-the-line SR22) are made of a foam-and-fiberglass
composite rather than the traditional aluminum. The material is as strong
as metal but lighter and easier to shape into a more aerodynamic airframe. That
means less drag as the plane flies, which translates into one thing most pilots
want: more speed. Compared with the decades-old designs of the boxy, entrylevel
Cessnas, Cirrus planes look like sexy sports cars. The SR22, which sells for
$313,900, has a cruising speed of 180 knots (207 m.p.h.)35 knots (40 m.p.h.)
faster than Cessna's popular 182, which retails for about $260,000.
But the Klapmeier brothers also threw out another aviation tradition: cramped
and intimidating interiors. Instead of the massive instrument panel that blocks the
view out of most cockpits, the Cirrus has a much smaller, curved panel that is
modeled on a car dashboard. The wings are low, and the windows very large.
That is in contrast to the Cessna, whose wing sits atop the cockpit like a big
awning, supported by view-obstructing metal struts. "Being able to actually see
what's outside of the cockpit is a big part of the fun of flying," says Alan. "The
cockpit is functional, with incredible attention to detail and knowledge of what
pilots need," says Gary Morgan, a 6-ft. 2-in., 280-lb. former Air Force flyer who
pilots an SR22. "And it can easily fit a guy my size."
The instruments are also displayed in a dramatically different way. Instead of the
small, round, black-and-white gauges of old, new Cirrus planes use two colorful,
10-in. computer screens with pictures that convey vital information on speed,
heading and altitude on the first, and weather, terrain and the location of other
aircraft on the second.
But there is one overarching ingredient that puts Cirrus in a category of its own:
all its planes come with a parachute. Alan Klapmeier had a near fatal midair
collision in 1984 and was convinced that a parachute could be a last-resort safety
mechanism. His goal was to save aviators from the source of most generalaviation
accidents: themselves. Although some safety experts have criticized the
chute as a gimmick, the Klapmeiers are convinced it's needed.
When the emergency handle is pulled, a solid-fuel rocket blows out the hatch that
houses the chute in the back of the fuselage, deploying the parachute, and
harness straps distribute the weight of the airframe. Within a few seconds, the
2,400-sq.-ft. chute opens, and the aircraft is supposed to descend gradually. In
October 2002 the Cirrus chute saved the life of a Texas pilot when one of his
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