LSAs Help BRS Back Into The Black

Ballistic Recovery Systems increased sales by 13.3 percent in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and recorded a small profit of about $45,000. And while that might not seem much for a company that sold almost $10 million worth of airframe parachutes last year, its a major improvement over the $1.76 million loss it recorded in the previous year. “We are pleased with our fourth quarter and full year performance as well as our ability to achieve consistent growth in revenue and a return to profitability, said CEO Larry Williams in a news release. Fueling that growth was a 47-percent increase in sales to the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) sector. But its not just the little airplane market thats lining up for whole plane parachutes. Among the most significant developments for the company last year was the announcement that a parachute would be an option in Diamonds D-Jet, which creates a whole new set of engineering challenges for the company. We are seeing unprecedented success in market acceptance of whole airplane emergency recovery parachutes, Williams said. The company also inked a new deal with Cirrus Design to continue supplying chutes (3,000 of the 25,000 BRS has shipped have gone to Cirrus). A total of 199 successful deployments (called saves by BRS) have been recorded.