Cirrus Aircraft Ltd | |
Formerly | Cirrus Design (1984–2009) |
Company type | Public |
SEHK: 2507 | |
Industry | Aerospace |
Founded | 1984Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States | in
Founders | Alan & Dale Klapmeier |
Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | Worldwide[1] |
Key people | Zean Nielsen (CEO) Patrick Waddick (president, innovation & operations, Duluth division) Todd Simmons (president, customer experience, Knoxville division)[2] George Letten (executive vice president & CFO) Ken Harness (senior vice president, product development) Ben Kowalski (senior vice president, sales & marketing)[3] Dale Klapmeier (senior advisor) |
Products | Light aircraft |
Revenue | US$1.06 billion (2023)[4] |
Owner | China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA) |
Number of employees | 2,500+ (2023)[5] |
Parent | Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) |
Subsidiaries | Flying Colors Aviation, Inc. |
Website | www |
The Cirrus Design Corporation, doing business as Cirrus Aircraft (formally Cirrus Design), is an aircraft design, manufacturing, maintenance and management company, as well as a provider of flight training services, that was founded in 1984 by Alan and Dale Klapmeier to produce the VK-30 homebuilt aircraft. The company is headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, with operational locations in six other states across the US including North Dakota, Tennessee (where its customer headquarters are based), Texas, Arizona, Florida and Michigan, and additional sales locations in France and the Netherlands.[6][7][8][9][10] It is majority-owned by a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
Cirrus markets several versions of its three certificated single-engine light aircraft models: the SR20 (certified in 1998), SR22 (certified in 2000), and SR22T (certified in 2010). As of July 2024, the company had delivered 10,000 SR-aircraft in 25 years of production, and has been the world's largest producer of piston-powered aircraft since 2013 and general aviation aircraft since 2022.[11][12][13][14] It is currently the third-largest aviation manufacturer in the world overall.[14]
Sales of the SR-series grew rapidly during the 2000s, until the economic crisis of 2008. Cirrus was planning to market a light-sport aircraft called the SR Sport, but suspended the project in 2009 due to financial challenges and a lack of market demand. This has since been cancelled. After a return to company growth and United States–based expansion in the 2010s, Cirrus certified and began deliveries of the Vision SF50 very light jet in 2016.[15][16][17] Upon its delivery, the aircraft became the first civilian single-engined jet to enter the market, and is often referred to as a "personal jet".[18][19]
The company produces all of its aircraft with composite materials and is known for pioneering new technologies in the light general aviation aircraft manufacturing industry, including glass cockpits and full-airframe ballistic parachutes.[11][12][20]
In 2001, Cirrus sold a majority of the company to Bahrain-based Arcapita. Ten years later, the manufacturer was acquired by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA), which is a division of the Chinese state-owned AVIC.[21][22] In 2024, it became a minority publicly-owned company as a component of the SEHK.[4]
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