On the same day that Garmin announced its Autoland feature and Piper made its new M600-SLS public, Cirrus Aircraft announced that it, too, had incorporated Garmin’s Autoland feature into its single-engine jet.
In the SF-50 Autoland, which Cirrus calls “Safe Return,” will be an additional safety feature on top of and not separate from the small jet’s whole-airplane-recovery parachute system. In a press release accompanying the introduction of Safe Return, Cirrus CEO Zean Nielsen said, “Our mission is to make personal aviation more accessible by continuing to improve passenger comfort and safety. Safe Return delivers the next step towards autonomous flight, bringing a new level of confidence to the overall flying experience.”
Cirrus has created an Autoland activation button to initiate the Autoland sequence that’s mounted on the ceiling, giving rear seat passengers easy access to it. Piper uses a guarded button, located on the panel.”
And somewhat surprisingly, the Autoland feature will be retrofittable on the Cirrus jet. Cirrus will announce the cost of the upgrade and its availability at a later date. But we expect the mod to be a popular one with Cirrus owners, for once Autoland is well known, their passengers will doubtless be asking if their jet has it.
Cirrus expects Autoland to be available on new Vision Jets sometime early in 2020.
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