CYPRES
Accept No Substitutes
When reliability is non-negotiable, you choose CYPRES. It wasn’t the first AAD, but it set the standard every modern AAD follows. As Airtec’s U.S. sales and service center – and one of only two global hubs – SSK maintains every CYPRES in the Western Hemisphere.
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About CYPRES
Before Airtec introduced the groundbreaking CYPRES, AADs were big, bulky, uncomfortable and, tragically, unreliable. After personally grieving over numerous misfires, engineer Helmut Cloth took it upon himself to alter the future of parachuting. He had 13 non-negotiable criteria his AAD must meet.
- Never show incorrect activation
- Be absolutely reliable when required
- Be extremely accurate
- Not restrict the parachutist, whatever he does
- Have an autonomous container opening system
- Only require minimal attention
- Be simple to operate
- Not be detectable from outside the rig
- Require only little maintenance
- Be small
- Be light weight
- Withstand all outside influences while parachuting, packing or transiting
- Be easily installed in existing rigs
In 1991, after four years of tinkering and thousands of hours of testing, Helmut and his team achieved the impossible: the “Cybernetic Parachute Release System.” Within weeks of its first production, the CYPRES saved a life. Today, the CYPRES has saved more than 5,200 lives.
Now, all containers are manufactured to accept the CYPRES.
The Reliable AAD
As Airtec attests, the CYPRES has:
- Accompanied over 179 million jumps
- Never failed to activate
- Never failed to sever the reserve loop*
*Given that the CYPRES was correctly installed and that the parameters to warrant an activation were met, including but not limited to the loop being properly routed through the cutter. Per our current knowledge as of August 2025.
SSK & CYPRES: Our Shared Story
SSK’s relationship with Airtec began when Cliff Schmucker and Helmut Cloth met at a PIA meeting shortly after the invention of CYPRES. Within a year – and following extensive independent testing – SSK was appointed the official, exclusive U.S. Service Center for CYPRES.
Today, from our facility in Lebanon, Ohio, we provide U.S.-based sales, servicing, and technical support using the same maintenance and test equipment as Airtec headquarters in Bad Wünnenberg, Germany. As Airtec’s trusted U.S. partner, SSK delivers CYPRES owners the same standards of precision, reliability, and care that define the brand worldwide.
