Cessna marries parachutes to pistons

Cessna marries parachutes to pistons

By AOPA ePublishing staff

Emergency parachutes will soon be available in Cessna's entire family of piston-engine airplanes.

Ballistic Recovery Systems (BRS) chief Larry Williams says Cessna service stations throughout the world will begin offering the whole-airframe parachute system installations for the 172 Skyhawk and 182 Skylane later this year. BRS will also begin immediately developing a supplemental type certificate for installation in the 206 Stationair.

Cessna apparently had its eyes on the parachute since early on in its light sport aircraft program. The optional parachute will sit aft of the seats in the SkyCatcher, similar to installations in the Skyhawk and Skylane.

October 11, 2007