Amphibious Plane Completes First Flight

Upstart light sport aircraft manufacturer ICON Aircraft announced Tuesday the company successfully flew a prototype version of its ICON A5 amphibious sport plane on July 9. ICON's team of engineers completed the full-scale prototype flight at an undisclosed lake location in California.

For a first flight of an unproven design, the initial test regimen was surprisingly thorough. ICON Lead Aero Engineer and Test Pilot Jon Karkow conducted the test flight, which demonstrated the aircraft's performance and flying characteristics during take-off, landing, and low-speed maneuvering flight. In addition, the aircraft's performance during water operations was evaluated.

Karkow is an experienced test pilot who has flown first flights for many notable aircraft, including the world-record setting Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer flown by the late Steve Fossett.

"Everything went as well as an initial test flight possibly could go; so I was very pleased," said Karkow, a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. "The aircraft flew exceptionally well and met or exceeded our design expectations. The A5 seems to be a great aircraft right out of the box."

The full-scale prototype aircraft is scheduled to undergo several phases of test flights over the next year before the design is finalized. After flight testing, a pre-production model will be built to verify all the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and ASTM compliance standards before entering production in late 2010.

"I' m proud of what this team has accomplished," said ICON VP of Engineering Matthew Gionta, who served as Mission Director of the flight. "I' ve been in the business of designing and building aircraft my entire career and I've never worked with a more talented team. When you get bright people pulling hard toward a common goal, then really incredible things start to happen. The ICON A5 is an example of this. It's really an amazing aircraft."

Introduced during a flashy invitation-only ceremony unveiling last month, the ICON A5 two-seat sport plane features an amphibious design with retractable landing gear for flying off land and water, plus several patent-pending technologies highlighted by folding wings that allow the plane to be easily stored and towed on the road with a trailer. The company plans to unveil the plane to the general public at AirVenture 2008.

Designed to be predictable and easy-to-fly, the ICON A5 features a lightweight carbon fiber airframe and is powered by a 100-hp Rotax 912 ULS engine that runs on both auto and aviation gasoline at an estimated top speed of 120 mph. Besides the folding wings, more unique features specific to the ICON A5 include an sports car-like cockpit with MP3 port, and patent-pending Seawing platform for easy access and docking on water.

The standard ICON A5 model is amphibious with retractable landing gear and manual folding wings. The estimated price of the ICON A5 standard model is $139,000 and orders are now being accepted with a refundable $5,000 deposit. Aircraft production and initial deliveries are scheduled to begin in late 2010.

FMI: www.iconaircraft.com, Watch The First Flight