Terrain Awareness Now Standard on World's Most Popular
Airplane
"1/5 of all General
Aviation fatalities are from controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)
accidents. Effective, CIRRUS is taking the leadership role in
combating these preventable accidents by including Terrain
Awareness Warning Systems (TAWS) as standard equipment in every new
plane," said Dale Klapmeier, company co-founder and executive vice
president.
CIRRUS has selected the Honeywell Bendix/King KGP 560 Enhanced
Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) to be included as a
standard installation on all new CIRRUS SR20 and SR22 airplanes.
Retro-fit kits will be made available to accommodate the 2,000
strong CIRRUS fleet presently flying.
CIRRUS co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alan Klapmeier
said choosing Honeywell as a supplier was, "An easy decision.
Honeywell invented Ground Proximity Warning Systems over 30 years
ago to improve safety for the commercial airlines, and has supplied
more GPWS and EGPWS (TAWS) units than all other competitors
combined."
Honeywell's Dan Barks, Director of Marketing for Business,
Regional & General Aviation, said that the terrain database and
algorithms used in the CIRRUS EGPWS terrain warning system are the
same ones provided to commercial airline customers, greatly
reducing the nuisance terrain and obstacle alerts common to other
TAWS units. Barks added that unlike some manufacturer's TAWS units,
the CIRRUS terrain warning system is equipped with an aural callout
that can differentiate between both terrain and known
obstacles.
"It's all about risk management," said Dale Klapmeier.
Whether flying a plane or simply driving a car, solid
decision-making and prudent risk management is what increases
safety and eliminates accidents. CIRRUS has been the industry
leader by integrating advanced systems such as Primary Flight
Display, Multi-Function Flight Display, Flight Director, Weather
Datalink, Stormscope, and Skywatch. Enhanced Ground Proximity
Warning System (TAWS) is one more link in the overall safety chain,
and such a crucial one that we've now made the commitment to
include it as standard equipment in every delivery."
"Our new 'Safety Comes
Standard' features are part of an overall tip-to-tail aircraft
enhancement program at CIRRUS," said Mark Darling, vice president
of marketing. In addition to the EGPWS (TAWS) units, we're also
very proud to announce that all CIRRUS SR20 and SR22 airplanes will
include AmSafe Aviation™ airbag seatbelt restraints as part
of the new standard installation."
Darling said, "We think customers will be pleased to see many
new improvements from an eye-catching variety of exterior striping
packages to exciting leather interior colors. Passengers can enjoy
the new XM Audio Entertainment system which comes standard with XM
Weather. At CIRRUS we continuously strive to improve and innovate,
all in the name of making flying more fun, accessible, and safer
for everyone."