Cirrus SR20

Cirrus SR20

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_SR20

SR20

2005 Cirrus SR20
Role	Civil utility aircraft
Manufacturer	Cirrus Design
Produced	1999-Present
Variants	Cirrus SR22

The Cirrus Design SR20 is a piston engine composite monoplane that seats four. The SR20 is noted for being the first production general aviation aircraft equipped with a parachute for spin recovery.

Development

SR-20 GTS

The SR20 was certified by the FAA on 23 October 1998. Hundreds of SR20s have been sold since the first was delivered in 1999. As of December 2006 over 2000 Cirrus aircraft had been delivered.

One of the major selling points for the SR20 is that it has a fully digital avionics suite with one 10-inch Avidyne FlightMax primary flight display and one multi-function display. A pair of Garmin GNS430s provide GPS navigation, conventional radio navigation, and radio communications.

The SR20, like the faster SR22, is equipped with the Ballistic Recovery Systems Cirrus Aircraft Parachute System, a large parachute which can be deployed in an emergency to lower the entire aircraft to the ground safely.

On 1 June 2004, the SR20 became the first aircraft to achieve the new European Aviation Safety Agency certificate for aircraft imported into the European Union.

SR20 G3 Model

In 2007 Cirrus introduced an updated model of the SR20 that incorporates changes from the SR22 G3 airframe, including installing the new lighter SR22 wing which has a greater wing area than the previous SR20 wing. The installation of the larger wing increased the SR20's cruise speed by 6–7 knots (11–13 km/h).

This improved model is called the SR20 G3 for "Generation 3". The new model includes:

A lighter wing of greater area, incorporating a carbon-fiber spar
Increased useful load by 50 pounds (23 kg) by increasing the take-off weight to 3,050 pounds (1,380 kg)
Increased fuel capacity to 56 US gallons (212 l) using a wet wing
Re-designed main landing gear that is 2 inches (5 cm) taller giving greater propeller and tail clearance
New recognition lights using LEDs
Improved aircraft handling, due to increased dihedral
Improved aerodynamics, including new wing root fairings
Improved heat and ventilation
Dual-redundant GPS WAAS-certified Garmin GNS 430W comm-navigators (they include a VHF radio and a VOR device)
S-Tec Autopilot

SRV model

The Cirrus SRV is a VFR-only version of the SR20 that is optimized for the low-end private ownership and flight training market. As such it omits some standard equipment available on the SR20 such as wheel fairings.

For 2008 the SRV model has also been updated to G3 configuration, with the SR22 wing.