Getting The Rest Of The Story From Inside Cirrus Corporate
As Friday morning's ANN Exclusive interview with Cirrus Chairman and former CEO Alan Klapmeier made the rounds, the one big question on the minds of many looking for more info on the Cirrus Vision Jet program, was just how serious was Alan, and would Cirrus really sell it to him.
We have some of our answers with a response by current CEO Brent Wouters, given during the course of remarks made in opening sessions at the 2009 Cirrus Owner's and Pilot's Association annual convention. It was probably not the first thing he wanted to deal with, that morning,especially after taking some bows for the much improved health of Cirrus Aircraft, but when asked, Wouters met the inquiry head on.
The story created buzz as soon as our interviews and transcriptions hit the web, where they transmitted and tweeted with alarming speed, and copies shamelessly by a few other media outlets that somehow neglected to attribute the original source.
The gist of the Wouters response is this... Brent confirms that Klapmeier's pursuits are indeed known and made in cooperation with Cirrus and Arcapita but it is also obvious that if Wouters has his way, the Jet will be completed by the current management.
"It is true... that Alan requested of the board an opportunity to look at the business," noted Wouters, "its absolutely true... to look at the jet business."
One thing that shouldn't be lost on everybody is we don't particularly see the future of Cirrus us without the jet... we don't particularly see, as is evidence by the commitment that we're making to the program... every last dollar that we have available is going to that R&D program.... we think that is an integral part of the future of the business."
The response, in its entirety, is featured in today's special Aero-TV News Feature....
Aero-TV Gets Cirrus CEO Brent Wouters' Take On The Possible Sale Of The Cirrus Jet Program
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