quiz: What year did the Cirrus SR20 first appear at Oshkosh? Was it 1994, 1996 or 1998? If you guessed 1994, you win. The SR20 appeared that year at Oshkosh as a prototype, ushered in by a high-dollar “Hangar X” advertising campaign that promised a new airplane that would be no less than the future of general aviation, priced at a mere $130,000.
At the time,
Aviation Consumers report could best be described as modestly impressed but skeptical. “If Cirrus delivers on that price,” we opined, “and survives the certification gauntlet-were skeptical on both counts-the SR20 could be a hot seller.”
We were wrong about the certification but right on the price and sales appeal. Adjusted for inflation, $130,000 is $165,000 today and a new SR20 invoices for closer to $250,000, a total that hasnt, nonetheless, given qualified buyers much pause. Glass panels as standard equipment-something we didnt foresee in 1994-have broadened the Cirrus sales appeal.
Cirrus promised that its all-composite airframe would suppress production costs and with a plastic instead of metal structure, the airplane would be more durable and easier to maintain than aluminum airplanes. But 12 years into the project- seven for production models-have those claims been borne out? How have the airplanes fared in the rough-and-tumble real world? As the old Buick ads used to say, we decided to ask the man who owns one.
Target Market
When Cirrus Design founders Alan and Dale Klapmeier set out to change the fundamental concept of general aviation, they didnt know it but they were thinking about Tom Pepple. Pepple is an energetic, successful 43-year-old Oregon pilot and businessman who relies heavily on his Medford- based Cirrus for business travel. He also happens to own Cirrus number one, the first production SR20, serial number 1005.
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