Cirrus have made it mandatory on their aeroplane, but actually quite a lot of smaller manufacturers have had it as an optional mod for quite a few years.
Mandatory, fitted as standard, fully tried and tested to the reliability levels of cirrus sounds better than an optional mod!
With the amount of deployments in testing and in real world situations the manufacturers must be getting more and more reassured that their system works time and time again with regular reliability.
So much so that many (not the manufacturer) are recommending the chute as a standard procedure for engine failure or in fact any situation where the pilot feels unable to cope?
That is a bit different to some microlight manufacturer offering a strap on ballistic chute which may not be quite as reliable.
My question is why Cessna do not build this into the Columbia which would increase their sales or even into the 172 which has the best safety record chute or no chute??
Do they have plans to do so as purely from a marketing public perception angle the chute must be a big sales motivator!
Pace