Klapmeier brothers
| The Klapmeier brothers | |
|---|---|
Dale Klapmeier (left) and Alan Klapmeier (right) speaking at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 2008
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| Born |
Alan Lee Klapmeier October 6, 1958 , Saint Paul, MN Dale Edward Klapmeier July 2, 1961 , Rockford, IL |
| Residence |
Albuquerque, New Mexico (Alan) Duluth, Minnesota (Dale) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education |
DeKalb High School Ripon College Wisconsin (Alan) University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (Dale) |
| Occupation | Aviation Entrepreneurs, Aircraft Designers, Chief Executive Officers |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Employer |
One Aviation (Alan) Cirrus Aircraft (Dale) |
| Known for | Cirrus Aircraft founders, Cirrus SR20 and SR22, Cirrus Vision SF50, Cirrus Airframe Parachute Recovery System, Kestrel K-350, pioneers of manufactured composite-airframes and glass cockpits |
| Home town | DeKalb, Illinois |
| Board member of |
Alan: EAA, MVP.aero (current) GAMA, Small Aircraft Manufacturers Association (SAMA), AERObridge, AOPA's Air Safety Foundation (former) Dale: AKIA, EAA's Young Eagles Program, AirSpace Minnesota (current) Red Tail Squadron, NASA's Research & Technology Roundtable, Scott D. Anderson Leadership Foundation (former) |
| Parent(s) | Larry and Carol Klapmeier |
| Awards | See below |
The Klapmeier brothers, Alan Lee Klapmeier (born October 6, 1958) and Dale Edward Klapmeier (born July 2, 1961), are American aircraft designers and aviation entrepreneurs who together founded the Cirrus Aircraft Corporation in 1984. Under the leadership of the Klapmeiers, Cirrus was the first aircraft manufacturer to install a whole-plane parachute recovery system as a standard on all its models—designed to lower the airplane (and occupants) safely to the ground in case of an emergency. The device is attributed with saving over 130 lives to date. Cirrus was also the first to use all-composite airframe construction and glass panel cockpits on production aircraft, which many say revolutionized general aviation for light aircraft pilots.
TIME magazine credited the Klapmeiers as "giving lift to the small-plane industry with an easy-to-fly design",Forbes magazine named their highly popular single-engine SR-series (the Cirrus SR20 and SR22) Best Private Airplane, saying "the Klapmeier brothers built the first genuinely new plane in the sky in years", and Flying magazine ranked Alan and Dale at number 17 on their list of 51 Heroes of Aviation. The Klapmeier brothers were inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame on 4 October 2014 in Dayton, Ohio.
The brothers started Cirrus in the basement of their parents' rural dairy barn near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Their first design, the VK-30 homebuilt aircraft, had its initial flight on 11 February 1988 and kit deliveries commenced shortly thereafter.
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Wikipedia