Alan and Dale Klapmeier have donated SR20 N205CD, to the Museum of Flight in Seattle (WA).  The aircraft will be in a permanent display and become part of their Aviation Learning Center.

Alan and Dale Klapmeier, the founders of Cirrus Design Corp., donated the fully-operational SR20 personal aircraft to The Museum of Flight on Monday, for use in its new Aviation Learning Center (ALC). 

The ALC will be an experiential learning environment for fourth- through 12th-graders in which the thrill and challenge of personal flight will be used to excite and educate up to 20,000 students annually in aspects of mathematics, science and technology.

Dale Klapmeier (the tallest one in the picture), co-founder of Cirrus, also conducted a demonstration flight over the Museum in the SR20. 

Upon landing, scores of youth attending the Museum's Aerospace Camp Experience summer day camp swarmed the plane. During a brief ceremony, Klapmeier presented the keys to the Cirrus SR20 to Museum representatives.

The SR20 will be the centerpiece of the "Hangar" section of the ALC, in which students will conduct realistic pre-flight inspections, learn navigation and compose flight plans. Other ALC sections include the "Learning Laboratory" -- in which students use interactive computer stations and hands-on activities to master basic concepts of flight -- and the "Flight Simulator Laboratory" -- in which students "fly" the flights they have planned in virtual-reality simulators. The ALC itself is scheduled to be fully-operational in the spring of 2004.

205 Charlie Delta, S/N 1002, is a special machine

Cirrus's Kate Andrews told us it's a piece of history in its own right. "It's a little workhorse," she explained. "That's the aircraft we did the MFD certification on -- that's the plane that Avidyne had."

That also means it's 'as good as it gets' -- these are lucky kids!

FMI: www.cirrusdesign.com