First flight for the Icon A5 futuristic seaplane

The Icon team after years of research, design, engineering, and manufacturing work, realized first flight for the Icon A5 futuristic folding-wing seaplane. Watch the video…

Images © ICON Aircraft

The ICON Aircraft company is now looking toward to FAA approval. The first customer delivery will occur in May of 2015. The company has already 1,000 orders.

The Icon A5 seaplane can hit speeds of 120 mph, a range of 300 nautical miles and will cost US$189,000.

From the press release:

“This is one of the most significant milestones to date for ICON. It represents the culmination of years of research, design, engineering, and manufacturing dedication by an outstanding team,” said ICON Aircraft Founder and CEO Kirk Hawkins. “The A5 is no longer a prototype or concept aircraft; it’s a sophisticated, production-ready, consumer-focused aircraft. The entire ICON team is pouring its heart and soul into bringing the A5 to our customers, and it shows in the truly exceptional execution of the product. I couldn’t be prouder.”
“The A5’s development has been a massive undertaking,” said ICON VP of Engineering and CTO Matthew Gionta.

“The amount of intellectual horsepower and years of relentless commitment that has gone into this aircraft is impressive. The ICON team worked tirelessly to make the A5 a reality; it is difficult to convey the magnitude of work involved to bring a new aircraft to market, much less one balancing all the demanding design requirements of the A5. Before we could even begin designing the aircraft’s 1600-plus unique components, the team spent thousands of hours designing, building, testing, and iterating the proof of concept aircraft to get it right. Only then could we design the production parts, the tools to manufacture them, and work with the 100 or so suppliers that are contributing components to the A5,” explained Gionta. “With ESN-1 complete and ESN-2 under construction, we are now looking toward FAA approval, after which we will begin customer deliveries. I can’t wait for our customers to finally experience the finished product.”