![]() The result is a weight savings of 10 pounds, and that’s reflected in a slightly improved payload. ![]() New features on the SR22T include additional NACA vents, larger openings for the exhaust pipes, an LED light (used to view potential icing on the wings) and a redesigned nose wheel assembly. There’s also a minor mod to the nosewheel fairing. The updated TCM powerplant mounts additional NACA vents to streamline cooling flow and some other minor cowling mods. In order to maintain cool heads under the cowling, the new 550K utilizes several minor mods to improve airflow. (In the full-blown version, currently utilized on the Lancair IVP, the engine is rated for 350 hp at 2,800 rpm and 38 inches mp). Once you’re off and headed uphill, you can pretty much set power and forget it. The new Continental is rated for 315 hp at 2,500 rpm and 36 inches mp continuous, and retains that rating all the way to cruise height. The new mill, technically known as a TSIO-550K, employs a 7.5:1 compression ratio rather than the standard 8.5:1 ratio employed on the 100 octane LL engines. Any way you read the signs, it’s apparent that avgas supplies are contracting worldwide, and 100LL may be disappearing altogether in the not-too-distant future.Īccordingly, Teledyne Continental Motors began work a few years ago on a big-bore, TSIO-550 engine that would run on lead-free, 94 octane avgas. ![]() Mobil already has dropped avgas from its inventory, and Chevron recently made allusions to “realigning” its avgas suppliers. Then too, there’s also some concern about continued availability of avgas of any kind. The motivation for the newest version of the SR22 was directly related to the industry’s concern over continuing availability of leaded avgas. He was way ahead of me on every question, and there was nothing he needed to refer to the factory. In my job evaluating airplanes, I meet a variety of check pilots, and Matt Bergwall was one of the most thoroughly prepared I’ve come across. Cirrus Aircraft recently flew a new 22T out from the factory in Duluth, Minn., for us to fly. Such is exactly the case with the new Cirrus SR22T. Cirrus has chosen to introduce new features one at a time, as they’re ready. While changes haven’t all been earthshaking, they’ve represented a steady improvement in the breed. The Columbia (now Cessna Corvalis) line of singles and the Diamond models have brought new ideas to the marketplace, enticing buyers with more options. Has it really been a full decade since Alan and Dale Klapmeier introduced the first version of the airplane that would eventually conquer the general aviation world? Is it really possible that the “new age” of general aviation aircraft has been with us for nearly a dozen years, heralding such innovations as carbon-fiber construction, full airframe parachutes, multiscreen electronic instruments and a BMW 5 series interior? Did someone invent the airplane of the future and forget to tell us?Ĭirrus has been a consistent leader in producing aircraft that embrace 21st century technology, not only in construction materials and techniques but in avionics, aerodynamics and creature comforts.
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