Air Transport

Cirrus Design is expanding its manufacturing capacity after delivering 600 piston singles last year, and taking orders for 701 aircraft. Production of the all-composite SR20 and SR22 is running at 13 a week, but plans to reach 16 a week this year are being paced by construction work under way at plants in Duluth, Minnesota and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Deliveries last year rose by more than 9% from 2004, but Cirrus is not giving a projection for this year.

“We don’t know where we will be at with construction,” the company says. Two-thirds of orders are for the SR22, but the basic SR20 is making a comeback with sales to flying schools, Cirrus says. Cessna, meanwhile, increased piston-single output by 20% over 2004, delivering 822 aircraft last year and ending 2005 with a backlog of 1,198 orders. Cessna also delivered 86 single-turboprop Caravans, up from 64 in 2004.