Aero-TV: Under The Skin -- How Cirrus Builds 'FIKI'

Aero-TV Network 2009-02-25

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ANN's Final Program On The Development and Certification of the Cirrus FIKI System As previously detailed, ANN had exclusive and unprecedented access to the Cirrus Aircraft team that created GA's latest FIKI certified airframe. It was a fascinating process... to look into and through ALL aspects of the design, manufacture, testing and certification of the 'Known Ice" version of the SR-22. We learned a lot and came away impressed, educated, and enthused by the prospects of these capabilities for all such airframes that make the grade of earning FIKI certification... a process that the FAA does not undertake lightly. In this final edition of our series on this upgrade, we look at what it takes to actually BUILD this critter... the ins, the outs, the nitty-gritty... as well as the people who make it happen. The KIP program, called project "KIWI" by the folks who were in on the secret development project, had been years in the making and required extensive engineering, serious rework of the airframe and construction protocols, and lots of flight testing... some of which was fairly intense. There are a number of features inherent in this massive upgrade... extended TKS panels for the wing, vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizers (including the very end of the leading edge of the elevator counterbalance), as well as dual rate redundant TKS de-icing fluid pumps, a windshield TKS application system, prop slinger, an ingenious wing/tail icing detection light, heated stall detection vane, larger/dual TKS reservoirs, Perspective software upgrades that monitor the entire works, and so much more...

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