ICON Aircraft Launches New Amphibious Sport Plane | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-10.06.25

AirborneNextGen-
10.07.25

Airborne-Unlimited-10.08.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-10.09.25

AirborneUnlimited-10.10.25

Thu, Jun 12, 2008

ICON Aircraft Launches New Amphibious Sport Plane

Automotive Design Cues Throughout Innovative Design

There's another new light sport aircraft manufacturer aiming to capture a share of an already crowded market... but this one does 'sport' some interesting ideas. ICON Aircraft officially introduced the company and its inaugural product, the ICON A5, at a private unveiling Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

The two-seat amphibious sport plane features retractable landing gear for flying off land and water, plus several patent-pending technologies -- including folding wings that allow the plane to be easily stored and towed on the road with a trailer.

"ICON Aircraft is bringing the freedom, fun and adventure back into aviation by building aircraft that evoke an emotional response like great sports cars do," founder and CEO Kirk Hawkins told a gathering of hundreds of guests that included astronaut Buzz Aldrin. "The sport is now back in flying."

The ICON A5 features a 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 a sports car-like cockpit with MP3 port, and patent-pending Seawing platform for easy access and docking on water.

"This is the beginning of a new era by bringing in, not thousands, not tens of thousands, but potentially hundreds of thousands of new pilots to aviation," said Vern Raburn, founder and CEO of Eclipse Aviation.

A team of automotive product designers contributed to the design of the ICON A5. A full-scale prototype is scheduled to begin flight tests this summer under the guidance of ICON's engineering team, which is comprised of former top engineers at Scaled Composites, producer of specialty aircraft like the Voyager, GlobalFlyer, and X PRize-winning SpaceShipOne.

The ICON A5 is designed to be predictable and easy-to-fly, with safety features such as a patent-pending Propeller Guard, Wing Angle of Attack indicator, and quick-deploying ICON Complete Airplane Parachute, or ICAP.

"The ICON A5 is extremely well suited for the sport pilot, but at the same time I think it appeals to the mass market," said pilot Kirby Chambliss, a five-time US Aerobatics Champion and Red Bull Air Race champion.

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.

FMI: www.iconaircraft.com

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (10.13.25): Homing [ICAO]

Homing [ICAO] The procedure of using the direction-finding equipment of one radio station with the emission of another radio station, where at least one of the stations is mobile, >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (10.13.25)

Aero Linx: European Regions Airline Association (ERA) The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) represents a diverse membership of over 50 airlines and more than 150 associate>[...]

ANN FAQ: Q&A 101

A Few Questions AND Answers To Help You Get MORE Out of ANN! 1) I forgot my password. How do I find it? 1) Easy... click here and give us your e-mail address--we'll send it to you >[...]

NTSB Prelim: CubCrafters Carbon Cub

While On Short Final, About 300 Ft, The Pilot Performed A Forced Landing Near Trees On September 7, 2025, about 0932 eastern daylight time, a CubCrafters Carbon Cub EX airplane, N4>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (10.14.25): Severe Icing

Severe Icing The rate of ice accumulation is such that ice protection systems fail to remove the accumulation of ice and ice accumulates in locations not normally prone to icing, s>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC