Cirrus Aircraft brought the first two production copies of its single-engine SF50 Vision jet to EAA AirVenture 2016 this week, in addition to prototype aircraft. Cirrus is completing function and reliability testing on the jet, and the FAA will soon begin its own F&R flying, it said. The company noted that it is close to receiving FAA certification for the jet.

"It's been a long-time coming, but it's finally here," said Cirrus Aircraft chairman Dale Klapmeier. Cirrus said its Grand Forks, N.D. facility is spooled up, with SF50s already on the production line, and that production has been "decoupled" from the certification process.

Meanwhile, Cirrus’s Knoxville, Tenn. delivery center will come on line later this year, initially with deliveries of SR piston series aircraft and then SF50 jets beginning next year. Next month, Cirrus will begin its flight safety review board with the FAA to cover training issues regarding the SF50. Training and deliveries remain on track to begin later this year.

Also at EAA AirVenture, Cirrus received the Joseph T. Nall safety award from the AOPA Air Safety Institute for developing its line of Cirrus Approach instructional courses credited with driving down the Cirrus accident rate threefold and giving Cirrus aircraft an accident rate 50-percent lower than the general aviation average.

"Safety was the most important thing we were after when we started this company," said Klapmeier. “We wanted to change this industry and we wanted to change it with safety. What we have done in the last three years with Cirrus Approach has truly started to have that vision come true."