Flight Safety Foundation
Admiral Luis de Florez Flight Safety Award

is presented to

Alan Klapmeier

For fulfilling a commitment to safety in the design and manufacture of personal airplanes.

In 1984, Alan Klapmeier was involved in a midair collision while taking a flying lesson in a small airplane. The pilot of the other airplane was killed. Mr. Klapmeier, president and co-founder of the airplane manufacturer Cirrus Design Corp., determined to make advanced safety equipment available in the company’s aircraft from the beginning.

When the Cirrus model SR20 was certified in 1998, it became the first airplane in the world to have a parachute as standard equipment. The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) is designed to lower the entire airplane to the ground in an emergency when all other means of landing safely have been exhausted. CAPS is standard equipment on every Cirrus airplane.

The first life-saving parachute deployment occurred in 2002, after a near-separation of an aileron left the aircraft uncontrollable; the pilot survived the accident without injury. Since then, CAPS has been credited with saving nine other lives in five deployments.

In addition, Cirrus has announced that a terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) and airbag seat belts will be standard on every new Cirrus SR20 and SR22 airplane.

Flight Safety Foundation is pleased to recognize Alan Klapmeier for his role in extending advanced safety equipment to personal airplanes.

FSF 58th International Air Safety Seminar
Moscow, Russia
November 9, 2005

Stuart Matthews
President and CEO
Flight Safety Foundation

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