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Aviation History
2000
2000-1 - 1584.PDF
40M SHOW Cirrus details plans for SR22 GUY NORRIS/LONG BEACH CIRRUS DESIGN is to certifi cate and deliver die first SR22 light single, a more powerful deriv ative of the popular SR20, by the end of the year. The Minnesota-based company, which displayed the prototype SR22 at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) meet ing in Long Beach, California, 20-22 October, says manufacture of the first production aircraft is underway at its Duluth site. The company had already logged 178 orders for the SR22 as the show began, and expected to see the backlog grow to 200 by the end of the month. The aircraft will be built on a parallel assembly line to die SR20, for which Cirrus has orders for 459 and has delivered 7 5, 16 of which have been handed over to European operators. Production of SR20s is set at three per week, but new tooling will enable this to increase to one per day in December: "By die end of 2001, we hope to be at two or NEWS IN BRIEF • LIBERTY CLUB FULL Liberty Aircraft says it has sold out all 50 XL-2 aircraft offered in its promotional "Founders Club" scheme. The introduc tory price of $85,000 for the single-engined, two-seater, will now rise to $97,500 for subsequent aircraft. The ini tial XL-2 is due to start test flights early next year with first deliveries starting in the first quarter of 2002. • CESSNA PARACHUTE Ballistic Recovery Systems (BRS), the Minnesota-based aircraft parachute maker, has teamed with Millennium Aerospace of Illinois to re introduce the GARD-150 emergency parachute system for refurbished Cessna 150s. The BRS system was certifi cated for use on the Cessna 150/152 series in 1993. The new SR22 offers better high-altitude cruise than the popular SR20 three times that rate," says Cirrus sales support director, Ian Bentley. The new aircraft is fitted with a 230kW (310hp) Teledyne Con tinental IO-550-N engine in place of the SR20's 200hp IO-360-ES powerplant. "We have had to do a major wing re-design to accommo date more fuel [3001itres (81 USgal) versus 210 litres in the SR20] and to handle the higher gross weight which is increased by 230kg to 1,545kg (3,4001b)," says Bentley. That, in turn, leads to higher strength landing gear and a lm (3ft) wider wing span." Wing span now measures 11.7m. "Aero- dynamically it is the same shape, but it has a heavier spar and provides better low-speed support and high-altitude cruise," he adds. Cruise speed increases tol80kt (333km/h)at75% power at 8,000ft (2,440m), versus 160kt for the SR20 under the same conditions. The SR22 will climb at up to l,300ft/min (7m/s), against 920ft/ min for the original aircraft. The extra fuel and bigger wing also gives the SR22 extended range and payload capabilities. "It has a maximum useful load of 5 2 0kg and can cruise for 1,500km (800nm) at 180kt, or for more than 2,800km at slower speeds and higher altitudes," says Bentley. Cirrus is also fitting out the aircraft with an all-electric dual alternator, dual battery system rather than the traditional vacuum system. "It's what we call a robust electrical system, and it will sup port a full glass cockpit," he says. The $276,600 basic SR22 will feature a Garmin GNS 430 colour global positioning system, a GNS 420 GPS and communications system, an electric horizontal situ ational (EHSI) indicator and an S- TEC/Meggitt System FiftyX autopilot. For $294,700, the air craft can be equipped with the more advanced S-TEC/Meggitt System Fifty FiveX autopilot, dual Garmin GNS 430s, altitude pre select and a Sandel 3 3 08 EHSI. • Teledyne to install GAP engine TELEDYNE Continental is preparing to install die revo lutionary JET A-fuelled diesel engine developed under NASA's General Aviation Propulsion (GAP) programme in a Cessna 337 prior to flight tests early next year. The engine will be mounted in the nose position of the Cessna twin for the tests and, if successful, Teledyne plans to show the aircraft at venues around the US next year, beginning with the Oshkosh Experimental Aircraft Association Show. The single development engine has clocked up 300h in the company's test cell in Mobile, Alabama, and, says the manufac turer, is " achieving all the original targets for weight and cost". These include 25% lower fuel consumption than a contemporary 150kW (200hp) engine, 50% lower cost and 75% increased time between overhauls. The all-new, water-cooled engine is built around a monoblock design in which the crankcase, cylinder bar rels and cylinder heads are formed from single castings. Two mono- blocks are bolted together at the crankshaft centre-line to form the finished engine. There are no indi vidual cylinder heads and the pis tons run in cast iron cylinder liners pressed into the aluminium casing. The four-cylinder, two-stroke design incorporates a firing pulse every 90° of engine rotation, which Teledyne says creates the " feel" of an eight cylinder, four-stroke engine. The rear case contains the oil coolant pumps and starter as well as oil and coolant reservoirs. The company says it may add two cylinders to later versions of the design to generate up to 220kW The initial engine will run at 2,300 rpm so it "will be good for noise abatement, and using JET A fuel will address issues about leaded fuel", says Teledyne. 3 Diamond Star forever as European flight certification nears DIAMOND AIRCRAFT'S DA-40 Diamond Star is a "few weeks away" from European instrument flight rules certifica tion, says the company. Some 15 demonstration aircraft are due to arrive in the USA from the company's manufacturing site in Austria in January, says Diamond. A total of 72 aircraft have been ordered to date:" We will go to 100 before the year is out," predicts Diamond sales vice-president, Errol Bader. The DA-40 is expect ed to have US FAR 2 3 certification in the second quarter, he adds. Production was originally expected to build up to 65 aircraft this year, 150 next year and 300 in 2002, but the company is running slightly behind this ambitious early schedule. • 28 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 October - 6 November 2000
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