An Aero-News Exclusive with Alan Klapmeier
By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin O'Brien
Alan Klapmeier is the
youthful, dynamic President and CEO -- and the public face -- of
Cirrus Design Corporation of Duluth, Minnesota. In a very short
time Cirrus has gone from test flights to challenging Cessna for
the single-engine production crown, so we were eager to talk to
Alan about production, about Cirrus's place in the market, and
about future directions for the Cirrus product line.
Cirrus, which makes the eponymous aircraft in SRV (200 HP VFR),
SR20 (200 HP), and SR22 (310 HP hot rod) flavors, was founded
twenty years ago by Alan and his brother Dale as a kit airplane
company, so it's hardly a green organization. The popular
impression of freshness comes from the modernity of its airplanes
-- the first, the SR20, was certified only in 1998 -- and the
outside-the-box thinking for which Cirrus is known. Aero-News
cornered Alan at the Cirrus booth and chased him onto the
observation deck on the roof of Cirrus's giant transporter, where
we wrung an interview out of him (if you know how easy it is to get
him talking about his company and its products, you will be
laughing at that...).
ANN: Well, the big news is sales. Your machines
were the top sellers for the quarter just ended. What about the
year? Can you beat Cessna?
AK: We are constrained by manufacturing: we can
produce a maximum of 542 aircraft a year; we can sell more
airplanes than we can build. Cessna is constrained by sales: they
can build more airplanes than they can sell. GAMA sales figures are
whatever you report to GAMA. Cessna reports sales to dealers; we
report sales to individuals, to end users.
ANN: You sell direct.
AK: Yes, we
sell direct; Cessna sells through dealers. There's nothing wrong
with that, but it does give them a capability to ship whatever they
need to ship to stay in the number one position. So they will do
it.
ANN: They say they will ship 600 planes --
single engine planes -- this year.
AK: Well, they probably can.
ANN: For some buyers the Cessna may be the
better airplane; the 182 has a greater useful load than any Cirrus,
for instance.
AK: Does the Skylane really compete with our
planes? I see it as more of an SUV. The SR20 and SR22 are more like
a luxury sedan. There's room for both. We want to see the whole
market grow, and that's good for both of us.
We encourage anyone to fly our airplanes and fly our
competitors' airplanes, fly them all, and then buy the one that
suits their needs best, whether or not it's ours. We're confident
enough to believe that we'll get more than our share of the
sales.
ANN: Looking down on your display, you make
three distinct airplanes on a single 4-seat airframe. in the longer
run, it seems like there is room at both ends of your line --
smaller and larger -- for another machine.
AK: Well, we really can't go to a smaller
plane. What is in the SRV that you can take out? You don't save
enough on a smaller airframe to let you sell it for less.
ANN: Your big expense is labor?
AK: Not really, our biggest expense is
materials... we reduced labor hours considerably with the G2
redesign, but materials were always the major expense.
ANN: Engines, panels, bought-in assemblies?
AK: Those are certainly a major component of
the cost of a Cirrus, but materials in general. So getting back to
my point, there's nothing you can take out of the SRV to make it
significantly cheaper.
ANN: And still be a Cirrus.
AK: Exactly. Now, at the other end, there is a
possibility down the road we might do something there.
ANN: Really....
AK: In fact, I am pleased to announce
exclusively to Aero-News that we are going to be introducing a
six-place jet... it features Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL),
supersonic cruise, and will sell for $129,000... [collapses into
good-natured laughter, unable to keep pulling my leg].
ANN: Ok, Alan, we'll come to you for content
for the April 1 issue. Seriously, now...
AK: Well, right now we make a good range of
airplanes and we can sell all that we make. We certainly might
introduce other aircraft but whatever we do, it will always be a
personal aircraft. Not a transport or a business aircraft, a
personal one. That's what we do.
ANN: Here's a question that I meant to ask you
last year when we talked, and didn't. What ever happened to the
SR21TD? [Note: this was an announced Cirrus powered by the SMA
turbodiesel engine].
AK: Well, we've learned [from that] not to
announce things before they're ready. We wanted to do it, we still
want to do it, but it has been harder than it looked at first, and
we announced it too early. There were a number of problems: for
instance, cold weather. We have the best environment in the world
for cold-weather testing in Duluth -- the military comes there to
cold-weather test their equipment. And we had problems with cold
starts in the diesel.
I want to stress that SMA have been just wonderful to work with.
When we have any problem, they are determined to find the cause and
resolve it. But this takes time. We'd still like to do it. Both for
Europe, where there is a huge difference in the cost of Jet A and
avgas, and for the future..
We're always interested in alternative engines. Or any other way
to make a better product.