Only 10 years ago, the idea of a certificated, "plastic" airplane had many old-timers shaking their heads in skepticism. It looks kind of interesting, but no "real" pilot would want of those things—it’s got a parachute, fergawd’s sake! Today, the Cirrus SR20—and especially its big brother, the SR22—have upended traditional ideas of what a personal airplane should look like, how it should be used and how it should be equipped.

The SR20 could be thought of as the product that started changing how the industry thinks of a modern personal airplane. Those changes have been evolutionary, not revolutionary. For example, the early SR20s, in fact, retained the too-familiar vacuum-powered "steam gauge"…