Icon starts deliveries to customers

avweb is typically pretty solid, so I have to believe it is for real

Love that Icon is making aviation accessible to more people and bringing some new blood and "cool factor" back into GA. I would love some time in an Icon one day and definitely see its appeal

But I continue take umbrage that they market these as fail safe toys. Giving a 20hr freshly minted pilot something to fly and maneuver low to the ground just seems like a very big gamble. but don't want to re-open that can of words, just the quote in the article reminded me
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Wait, it's July 19th, not April 1st! :)

I never actually believed they would start delivering. Wow. That is great news to all the pre-paid owners and especially stockholders.
 
Tantalum said:
avweb is typically pretty solid, so I have to believe it is for real

Love that Icon is making aviation accessible to more people and bringing some new blood and "cool factor" back into GA. I would love some time in an Icon one day and definitely see its appeal

But I continue take umbrage that they market these as fail safe toys. Giving a 20hr freshly minted pilot something to fly and maneuver low to the ground just seems like a very big gamble. but don't want to re-open that can of words, just the quote in the article reminded me
View attachment 54932
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Exactly that right there.

I'd love to get some stick time in one, especially if they made one that didn't have to conform to the LSA rules, cool plane for sure, but their marketing scheme, especially with the oh so recent blood spilled, is horrific.
 
Anything can happen... sometimes it just takes 11 years!
 
Tantalum said:
avweb is typically pretty solid, so I have to believe it is for real

Love that Icon is making aviation accessible to more people and bringing some new blood and "cool factor" back into GA. I would love some time in an Icon one day and definitely see its appeal

But I continue take umbrage that they market these as fail safe toys. Giving a 20hr freshly minted pilot something to fly and maneuver low to the ground just seems like a very big gamble. but don't want to re-open that can of words, just the quote in the article reminded me
View attachment 54932
Click to expand...

I agree, although the business tactics that they took to chase off early position holders was more than a bit suspect. Nevertheless, I up for any aircraft that can safely expand the GA population (of both pilots and airplanes).
 
I assume they will sell like hotcakes but only for the young hipster crowd where males actually weigh as much as the FAA definition of an adult.
If Icon adjusted their pricing a little and made the airplane better by giving it a higher payload (what's the point of a two-seater if you can't put any fuel in it??), I'd be interested.
 
BigBadLou said:
I assume they will sell like hotcakes but only for the young hipster crowd where males actually weigh as much as the FAA definition of an adult.
If Icon adjusted their pricing a little and made the airplane better by giving it a higher payload (what's the point of a two-seater if you can't put any fuel in it??), I'd be interested.
Click to expand...

The sad thing is that Icon has an FAA exemption to increase the gross weight to 1680lbs (170lbs more than what it is right now).

But the FAA took so long to process the application, that after 6 months Icon started progressively re-designing parts of the aircraft to try and come in under the actual LSA weight (1430). They got down to 1510 and then the FAA came back and granted them the exemption (number 10829) for 1680 lbs. But at that point Icon was already set up with the lower gross weight design, so that's what they're shipping with now.

They still have that FAA exemption though (and it's needed even at 1510lbs) - which means they could ship a future model with a higher gross weight and higher payload capacity and still call it an LSA. They would need to re-engineer some of the components to support that, but even with that it could still support a higher payload. Of course they can also just do something else instead of increasing the payload. e.g. Add BRS.

But at this point they probably just need to monetize on what they have at hand first for a few years - there's enough buyers lined up just for that.


(Source is a conversation I had with Icon Sales on this, answering a specific question of mine about why they ended up shipping with a lower gross weight than the FAA exemption they received).
 
Icon is a cool little airplane. Has its limitations. Lightweight. But nice handling. Pontoon floats are cool, but Icon design flies better if they did it right. More streamline. Those pontoons slow you down and make you feel the sway in a turn. The writers think they did it right. Now as to the cost... well.... new airplanes are expensive.
 
Many of ICON's promotional videos seems to glorify very low-level flight with steep banked maneuvering over and near trees and rock formations. From a safety cultural perspective, it doesn't seem too far fetched that the this accident may have occurred as a result. Sounds like time for a SMS program before starting more deliveries.

I wish them luck, but their aircraft is just another $250K airplane that few can afford. Just read their press release of the recent deliveries.
 
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