Cirrus is upgrading the Vision Jet with two new advanced features, Auto Radar powered by Garmin® and Cirrus IQ™. Both upgrades aim to provide pilots of its single-engine personal jet with increased situational awareness and improved connectivity in pre-flight and in-flight activities.
“Cirrus Aircraft incorporates intelligent and award-winning innovations into its ecosystem to make flying simpler, safer, and more approachable for the pilot and passengers,” said Zean Nielsen, Chief Executive Officer of Cirrus Aircraft. “The award-winning Vision Jet is a testament to our team’s ongoing dedication to advancing the personal aviation industry. Over the years, the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System® (CAPS®) and Safe Return™ Autoland have revolutionized the Personal Aviation industry. Now with Auto Radar and Cirrus IQ connectivity, pilots have more situational awareness inflight and can streamline the preflight process.”
Auto Radar simplifies pilot workload by providing an easy-to-use interface that enables a pilot to specify a desired range, with the auto radar determining the appropriate tilt and producing an easy-to-understand volumetric profile of weather ahead while eliminating ground clutter. The pilot will no longer need to “tune” the radar to the horizontal scan or vertical tilt to evaluate weather patterns ahead, nor interpret slices of data, as the system automatically pulls multiple slices together to form a clear image of what’s ahead. An explanatory video can be found here. This represents a major workload reduction for pilots, particularly since many Vision Jet are operated by a single pilot.
Cirrus IQ is a mobile app that enables pilots to stay updated on aircraft readiness items during their pre-flight preparation, including the status of fuel and oxygen levels, aircraft location, flight hours, and engine cycles. Cirrus IQ also includes a Maintenance Minder to help owners keep track of maintenance intervals and requirements and access the latest technical publications for their aircraft. A video on Cirrus IQ can be found here.
The LTE-enabled hardware that powers Cirrus IQ is standard on newly manufactured G2+ Vision Jets, and Auto Radar is available as part of the Enhanced Awareness Package. The Cirrus IQ mobile app is available to owners with an active JetStream contract. Auto Radar and Cirrus IQ retrofits will be available for G2 and G2+ Vision Jet owners through Cirrus Upgrades and Accessories.
