In 2004, a category was made (Light Sport Aircraft), a license was created (Sport Pilot), and the notion of consumer recreational flight was realized. The following year, Stanford Business Graduate Kirk Hawkins founds ICON. Hawkins, an accomplished engineer and former Air Force F-16 pilot oversees the creation of the A5 Light Sport Aircraft, available at an introductory price of $139,000 USD. Did we mention it has automatic folding wings?
Drag the ‘Adjust Wingfold’ bar across for animation
Aircraft Vitals
– Starting Price: $139,000
– Seats: 2
– Maximum Speed (Vh): 120 mph (105 kts)
– Folding wings (manual or automatic)
– Amphibious design (flies off land and water)
Dimensions
– Wingspan: 34 ft
– Aircraft Length: 22 ft
– Aircraft Height: 7.1 ft
– Trailered Width: 8.5 ft
– Trailered Length: 28 ft
– Trailered Height: 8.3 ft
Up, Down, Around
– Takeoff & Landing Distance: 750 ft
– Fuel (Auto Gas or Av Gas): 20 gal
– Retractable landing gear (gear can be deleted entirely to make a pure seaplane)
– Seawing platforms for easy access and docking
Bells and Whistles
– High-strength, lightweight carbon fiber airframe
– Runs on auto gasoline or aviation gasoline
– Intuitive, sports car-like cockpit
– GPS moving map
– MP3 in-flight music port
– Glass (LCD) multifunction display (optional)
With its world-class team of engineers, designers, advisors, and investors, ICON is located in Southern California – home of the world’s largest concentration of both aerospace and automobile design resources. ICON’s engineering and development team came from Burt Rutan’s famed Scaled Composites, which created such record setting projects as Voyager, Global Flyer, the X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne, and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.
Granted the price tag is hefty, it’s still Comparable to the cost of a luxury sports car like an Audi R8, which can’t even hover let alone fly! Keep in mind you still require a Sport Pilot License which requires plenty of training, albeit half the amount required for a standard aviation license. So who wants one?
All information and images via www.iconaircraft.com. Please visit for additional resources, news, multimedia and purchasing inquiries.
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