Cirrus to make personal jet

Sprint100

Sprint100

Well-Known Member
Cirrus says they will make a personal jet, not a VLJ:confused:

"Cirrus Design is entering the jet world. The company has sent out 1,500 "gray boxes" to potential customers, outlining details of the jet and asking for $100,000 deposits. No mock-ups or images have been provided as of yet. What Cirrus will say so far is that the airplane will have a single engine, a roomy interior, an emergency parachute system, and a cruise speed of more than 300 knots. It will fly up to Flight Level 250 and cost less than $1 million. "Our intent is not to build a very light jet, our intent is to build a personal jet," said John Bingham, Cirrus vice president of sales. The airplane has been dubbed "the-jet," but Bingham wouldn't say how close it is to the maiden flight, only that they are "very committed" to the project. The jet will be designed to be an easy transition for SR22 pilots, he added. More details, such as the engine manufacturer, are expected to be announced later this month at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention. Cirrus had also kicked around the idea of building a light sport airplane, but Bingham said that they won't be bringing one to market at this time."
 
What sort of experience will the insurance companies require to fly that thing? I hope 100 hour wonders wont be able to get there hands on this thing.

Although if its designed to be an easy transition from an SR22, its got to be stupidly easy to fly I'm guessing?
 
jfleisher said:
What sort of experience will the insurance companies require to fly that thing? I hope 100 hour wonders wont be able to get there hands on this thing.

Although if its designed to be an easy transition from an SR22, its got to be stupidly easy to fly I'm guessing?
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It's not the actual flying of the aircraft that's hard; it's the speeds that it's going to move at. A King Air is MUCH easier to fly than say, a Piper Chieftain or a Cessna 402, but it also moves A LOT faster and requires a different set of skills.
 
wheelsup said:
Haven't we heard that before? I can't quite put my finger on it...

eclipse...originally $850k, now at $1.5 mil...
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It is a lot cheaper to make a single engine jet that is only certified to FL250, than it is to make a twin jet that can fly in the upper flight levels. It is usually also easier for an existing manufacturer to certify an airplane once they have done it before, than to try to design an aircraft and start a new company all at once. Also don't forget than many of the problems Eclipse had early on was because they chose an engine that just didn't work. When they went with a bigger engine, they had to redesign much of the aircraft. This added time and cost. Cirrus will probably have an easier time, since the engines are already developed, and the avionics (G1000) are proven.
 
ananoman said:
It is a lot cheaper to make a single engine jet that is only certified to FL250, than it is to make a twin jet that can fly in the upper flight levels. It is usually also easier for an existing manufacturer to certify an airplane once they have done it before, than to try to design an aircraft and start a new company all at once. Also don't forget than many of the problems Eclipse had early on was because they chose an engine that just didn't work. When they went with a bigger engine, they had to redesign much of the aircraft. This added time and cost. Cirrus will probably have an easier time, since the engines are already developed, and the avionics (G1000) are proven.
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I agree - Cirrus will probably be able to pull this off much more effectively than eclipse. However, if history is any sort of indicator for these things...

If there's anyone that can do this, Cirrus is probably the one. I wonder how many seats this "personal" jet will have? I would hope for 6, as 4 seats would really be like 2 people + baggage.
 
Kind of bad timing with the thing in NY the other day... Seems like they would have waited a while to announce something like this.
 
$100,000 down today will secure your CirrusJet. Plus you get a big pewter coaster that might possibly double as a belt buckle or some bling if attached to a chain.

I've run the insurance numbers on the Eclipse jet and with my insurance carrier, and right now a pilot that gets his type and inital training from Eclipse and meets ATP mins. (with some turbine time ) is going to have to pony up about $46,000 a year for basic personal and hull coverage.
 
Timbuff10 said:
Kind of bad timing with the thing in NY the other day... Seems like they would have waited a while to announce something like this.
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It was announced before the crash. I don't think it was the official announcement though, kind of like the Cessna already taking deposits for the CJ4 but it hasn't "officially" been announced.

Official announcements usually occur at annual NBAA convention, which happens to be this week (17th-19th).
 
So basically this will be in the same class as the Diamond D-Jet.

What Cirrus really ought to make is a 6-place piston. Call it the SR26!
 
They actually announced The-Jet at M4 (Cirrus Migration 4) back in June. The boxes don't have much information but do have directions for making the non-refundable and non escrow 100k deposit. You also get a cirrus coaster in the box! :) There should be more info given on Tuesday at NBAA. I haven't gotten my box yet but when I do, I'll let you know more.

T
2004 SR20 owner w/ PFD/MFD
 
Not even an artist's rendering? If I was gonna plunk down a hundred large on a plane, I want to at least know what it might look like.
 
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