That’s how it was with the latest Cirrus SR22 I got to fly. You get little insights here and there that add up to a sense of the character that feels somehow more authentic. It’s more like getting to know a new friend. When I do I seldom learn entirely new things about the airplane.

It’s not every airplane I fly that I get the chance to test by flying it hard over the course of many days. The rest of the market is playing catch-up. While this statement could probably have been said of the Cirrus SR22, with its remarkable suite of avionics and safety capabilities, for the past couple of years, the addition this year of a fifth seat option and a very capable satellite communications system with global weather, voice calling, texting and e-mail seals the deal. But in this case, I’ll break my unofficial rule and come right out and say it: The 2012 Cirrus SR22 is the most sophisticated single-engine civilian airplane ever built and by a long shot. Any time you say that any airplane is the “most” anything, get ready for a hearty helping of crow, as there’s surely some model somewhere in history that you’ve forgotten that is even more than what you blithely claimed in the first place. Sometimes the upgrades were minor, like new interior options, and sometimes they were substantial, like new engines or avionics makeovers.Īs a journalist, I’ve learned over the years that it’s not wise to speak in absolutes. The launch of the 2012 Cirrus SR22 is noteworthy thanks to a couple of new features but even more so because, in aggregate, this is the year that the Cirrus SR22 has really arrived at the top of the heap.īack in the 1960s, the launches of a new model year’s airplanes used to be big things, because there were often important changes to the model lineups of the big three and their less established competitors.

Cirrus sr22 interior parts