Terrain Awareness Now Standard on World's Most Popular Airplane

"1/5 of all General Aviation fatalities are from controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents. Effective, CIRRUS is taking the leadership role in combating these preventable accidents by including Terrain Awareness Warning Systems (TAWS) as standard equipment in every new plane," said Dale Klapmeier, company co-founder and executive vice president.

CIRRUS has selected the Honeywell Bendix/King KGP 560 Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) to be included as a standard installation on all new CIRRUS SR20 and SR22 airplanes. Retro-fit kits will be made available to accommodate the 2,000 strong CIRRUS fleet presently flying.

CIRRUS co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alan Klapmeier said choosing Honeywell as a supplier was, "An easy decision. Honeywell invented Ground Proximity Warning Systems over 30 years ago to improve safety for the commercial airlines, and has supplied more GPWS and EGPWS (TAWS) units than all other competitors combined."

Honeywell's Dan Barks, Director of Marketing for Business, Regional & General Aviation, said that the terrain database and algorithms used in the CIRRUS EGPWS terrain warning system are the same ones provided to commercial airline customers, greatly reducing the nuisance terrain and obstacle alerts common to other TAWS units. Barks added that unlike some manufacturer's TAWS units, the CIRRUS terrain warning system is equipped with an aural callout that can differentiate between both terrain and known obstacles.

"It's all about risk management," said Dale Klapmeier.

Whether flying a plane or simply driving a car, solid decision-making and prudent risk management is what increases safety and eliminates accidents. CIRRUS has been the industry leader by integrating advanced systems such as Primary Flight Display, Multi-Function Flight Display, Flight Director, Weather Datalink, Stormscope, and Skywatch. Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (TAWS) is one more link in the overall safety chain, and such a crucial one that we've now made the commitment to include it as standard equipment in every delivery."

"Our new 'Safety Comes Standard' features are part of an overall tip-to-tail aircraft enhancement program at CIRRUS," said Mark Darling, vice president of marketing. In addition to the EGPWS (TAWS) units, we're also very proud to announce that all CIRRUS SR20 and SR22 airplanes will include AmSafe Aviation™ airbag seatbelt restraints as part of the new standard installation."

Darling said, "We think customers will be pleased to see many new improvements from an eye-catching variety of exterior striping packages to exciting leather interior colors. Passengers can enjoy the new XM Audio Entertainment system which comes standard with XM Weather. At CIRRUS we continuously strive to improve and innovate, all in the name of making flying more fun, accessible, and safer for everyone."

FMI: www.cirrusdesign.com