Supercharged Cirrus: Effective, but orphaned

While not exactly turbochargers, superchargers are air compressors directly driven by the engine via a belt, gears or the crankshaft. Forced Aeromotive, with its bolt-on belt-driven supercharger mod, took an interesting approach in boosting engine power for increased performance. These systems work, and ones we’ve flown boost cruise speeds by up to 20 knots over a normally aspirated models. But the real appeal is that climb rate goes up as much as 500 FPM. But with the passing of Forced Aeromotive founder Rod Sage last year, owners are reporting a halt in parts supply and engineering support. That means abandoning an otherwise good-performing system at a sizable cost in performance and investment.
In this video, supercharged-modded Cirrus SR22 owner Alexander Wolf shows us around the modded Continental engine on his Cirrus and explains the situation he faces with an AOG airplane that needs replacement parts.