Generation 6: Your Generation?

Onwards and upwards! How does the new SR-22 ‘Generation 6’ compare to the very recent G5?

- Keith Wilson

According to GAMA statistics, Cirrus’s single-engine piston aircraft sales have consistently outperformed all other general aviation manufacturers in the last fourteen years, the company taking the largest share of the GA market for the past two years. Readers of Pilot’s flight test on the Cirrus SR-22 ‘Generation 5’ aircraft (January 2017) may be surprised to learn that the featured model has already been superseeded. Cirrus is not a company that rests on its laurels, regularly updating its products with new offerings. Maybe the competition should take a leaf out of its book.

The 2017 ‘Generation 6’ upgrades apply to the Cirrus SR-20, SR-22 and SR-22T. The SR-20 now features an engine that is more compact and yet produces greater power, the latest 215hp four-cylinder Lycoming IO-390-C3B6 replacing the previously-offered 200hp six-cylinder Continental IO-360. Reducing the cylinder count by two means a lighter unit with fewer parts and therefore, according to Cirrus, lower maintenance costs. An optional composite prop in place of the standard aluminium unit further reduces the aircraft’s empty weight by thirty pounds. These changes play a part in allowing a 150 lb increase in the maximum all-up-weight to 3,150 lb. Judging by recent announcements of significant numbers being purchased by a couple of very large airline-based commercial flight training schools, the SR-20 G6 is very attractive for flight training.