Operating on the premise that good airframes are forever, companies have, from time to time, offered major upgrades and mods that turn the old into the new. Some have been successful, such as RAM Aircrafts twin Cessna engine upgrades or Rocket Engineerings Malibu turbine redo, but many have not. Its not that the upgrades don’t perform, but that buyers just don’t sense an obvious price/value connection.

This conundrum frames the challenge that a new company called Next Dimension Aircraft will face in introducing whats one of the most ambitious mod projects weve seen to date. We define “ambitious” as a modification whose costs come close to or exceed the value of the airframe.

Thats definitely the case for a new Cirrus project from a startup Next Dimension, which proposes to modify normally aspirated SR22s equipped with IO-550Ns with the Tornado Alley turbonormalizer set-up Cirrus has been selling in new SR22s for three years. The turbonormalized SR22 has been wildly successful for Cirrus until the current downturn hammered sales. Even at that, Cirrus is still selling new aircraft, reporting 68 sales during the third quarter of 2009, a respectable total given the sorry state of the economy.

In addition to the engine upgrade, the Next Dimension mod offers Avidynes second-generation EFIS, the Release 9. Although its comparable to the Garmin G1000 Cirrus offers in the Perspective SR22, the Release 9 hasnt gained huge traction in the OEM market that Garmin simply owns. Depending on how successful Next Dimension is or isn’t, Avidyne might see some sales if enough buyers show interest in Next Dimension.

Whats Involved?