Cirrus VK-30
The Cirrus VK-30 is a single-engine pusher-propeller homebuilt aircraft originally sold as a kit by Cirrus Design (now Cirrus Aircraft), and was the company's first model, introduced in 1987.
| VK-30 | |
|---|---|
| Cirrus VK-30 outside the Florida Air Museum in 2006 | |
| Role | Amateur-built airplane |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Cirrus Design |
| Designer | Alan and Dale Klapmeier, Jeff Viken |
| First flight | 11 February 1988 |
| Introduction | 1987 |
| Produced | 1988–1993 |
| Number built | Circa 13 |
As a kit aircraft, the VK-30 is a relatively obscure design with few completed aircraft flying. Its most important legacy is that the work done on developing and marketing the aircraft convinced the designers, the Klapmeier brothers, that the best way to proceed in the future was with a more conventional layout and with a certified production aircraft. Thus the lessons of the VK-30 were directly responsible for the design of the Cirrus SR20 and SR22, which have been the best-selling general aviation airplanes in the world every year since 2003. The VK-30 also served as a significant inspiration for the creation of the company's latest aircraft, the Cirrus Vision Jet, which in 2018 won the Collier Trophy for becoming the first single-engine personal jet with a whole-plane parachute recovery system.