Cirrus Aircraft’s Safety Focus Has Been Good For Business

Last week Cirrus Aircraft announced the introduction of a new addition to its SR series of single-engine piston aircraft, the G7+, which will feature the company’s Safe Return Emergency Autoland technology as standard equipment. The safety aspect of the announcement is in keeping with the company’s philosophy based on a long-ago quote from one of its two co-founders, Alan Klapmeier: “The penalty for a mistake or bad luck should not be death.”

Cirrus was founded in 1984 by Alan and his brother Dale Klapmeier. Headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, it manufactures personal aircraft that include the SR series of propellor planes and its Vision Jet, as well as the TRAC SR20 series of specialty training airplanes. The addition of Safe Return to its piston aircraft, after originally offering the feature only on its Vision Jet, is another in a series of safety innovations from Cirrus. The most famous one, of course, is its Cirrus Airframe Parachute System, a standard feature on all its aircraft.

The company’s focus on safety appears to be delivering strong business results. Publicly traded Cirrus is the now world’s third-largest aircraft manufacturer by units delivered for general aviation, according to their figures compiled from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and corporate annual reports. It has delivered over 10,000 of its SR Series, including over 1,200 in just the last two years. The SR Series comprises nearly 50% unit market share and over 60% revenue market share. Last year was a record-setting one for its Vision Jet deliveries, which totaled 101 aircraft.

“As a broker who sells preowned Cirrus aircraft, I can confidently say safety is the number one reason clients seek out the brand,” said Mindy Lindheim, aircraft sales broker for Lone Mountain Aircraft and frequent contributor at Twin and Turbine Magazine, via email. “The parachute system, the avionics, and the training ecosystem all work together to make Cirrus stand out and that reputation drives purchasing decisions every day.”

The company projects that by 2027, there will be more SR Series G7+ with Safe Return delivered than any other aircraft equipped with Garmin Autoland (the technology upon which the Safe Return system is built) combined.

“It is a phenomenal technology on any airplane, but I think it’s going to be significantly impactful for this level of airplane,” Ivy McIver, executive director, SR product line at Cirrus, told me in an interview. “We’ve brought this technology that was once reserved for bigger, more expensive airframes, and brought it down to a more attainable, more approachable airframe.”

Lindheim agreed. “Having Garmin Aviation’s Autoland technology in a piston aircraft is a huge leap forward, not just for Cirrus, but for general aviation as a whole,” she said. “It signals a future where advanced safety tools aren’t just for jets or high-performance turboprops.”

Safe Return is a push-button technology that autonomously flies the airplane to the nearest suitable airport in the event of pilot difficulties or incapacitation. “It’s actually a very impressive marriage of digital technology, mechanical technology, and, dare I say, compassion,” explained McIver. “I have had the pleasure of flying an aircraft equipped with Safe Return… over 70 times. I have observed its approach to landing over 40 times at 16 different airports, and the more times that I activate it, the more and more confident I get in the system, and hands down, absolutely feel confident putting my life and the lives of my passengers in Safe Return’s hands.”

It’s interesting to note that while Garmin introduced its Autoland technology in 2019, so far there have been no emergency activations. But McIver thinks its opportunity to save lives will come with greater numbers of planes equipped with it. “In the first year and a half, roughly, of production, there will be more SR Series equipped with Safe Return emergency autoland than any other airframe combined,” she said. “So I think that is where we will see the impact of a Safe Return activation. Is that low-time pilot or a pilot who gets task-saturated or overwhelmed or into a circumstance that they get disoriented? And this button gives them permission to ask for help and provide help for themselves. And so I think that the first activation that we will see of an Autoland is in the SR Series.”

“Cirrus has always understood that they’re not just selling airplanes, but rather, they’re selling peace of mind,” Lindheim added. “Every new safety feature they introduce is another reason why Cirrus owners stay loyal to the brand.”