Despite The Faint Praise, Hawkins' Exit Has Long Been Forecast

The other shoe has dropped... Kirk Hawkins, the driving force behind the Icon Aircraft program and a massive litany of mis-steps, is no longer the CEO of the foundering aircraft concern.

Icon is wrapping up the matter with as much positive spin as they can, though the company admits that Hawkins has resigned as CEO, and will reportedly stay on in "an undefined role" while President and COO Thomas Wiener will lead the company in the interim.

Hawkins has been leading the company since its inception, and guided it through a series of blunders and broken promises that gave way to several minor and major accidents that tarred the image of an aircraft once touted for its safety features. From the attempt to force owners into a bizarre and restrictive sales contract, to a series of production failures, and some spectacular price increases, Hawkins prediction of thousands of Icons flying through the skies seems, increasingly, to be a pipe dream.

While serial production is allegedly now underway, it's a fraction of what was once promised and even some of the most recent boasts are not verifiable by the latest GAMA stats -- which show only 4 built in Q1 and a single aircraft on the roster for Q2 - far from the 'average' of 8-10 a month recently boasted by an Icon rep at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase. 

FMI: www.iconaircraft.com, www.gama.aero