Minnesota Public Radio reports Cirrus Aircraft plans to invest $15 million in a new “Innovation Center” at the former Northwest Airlines maintenance base. The company said it plans to hire 80 additional engineers over the next three years.
Business consulting company Elixirr produces a show where the interviews with entrepreneurs are conducted in an airplane. Episode Two features Dale Klapmeier, co-founder of Cirrus Aircraft. From the Airtime website:
By flying them over the places that shaped who they are today, Airtime brings you the stories of inspirational entrepreneurs. Find out where they get their drive from, how they made it, and who shaped them along the way. These are the stories of the founders of some of the world’s most innovative and disruptive companies. All told at 3,000 feet.
Note: CBS News has removed its video of this report, therefore PDD has removed the embed. There is a different, non-embeddable video at cbsnews.com.
Former Walmart CEO Bill Simon was piloting a Duluth-manufactured Cirrus SR22T heading from Bentonville, Ark., to Waco, Texas, when he ran into engine trouble shortly after takeoff. As CBS News reports in the clip above, the airplane began to lose altitude and Simon made a split-second decision to deploy the safety parachute. He glided to the ground and landed on a stretch of road, the entire aircraft still visibly intact.
A small plane pilot walked away unhurt from a crash near Kiowa, Colo. early Sunday after he deployed the aircraft’s parachute system, authorities said.
(“Pilot unhurt after plane’s parachute cushions crash near Kiowa” story from Denver7 no longer archived.)
