ICON Aircraft and Cirrus Aircraft to Partner on the Production of the ICON A5 Amphibious Sport Plane

ICON Aircraft is a consumer sport plane manufacturer founded in response to the new sport flying category created by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  ICON’s first plane is the A5, an amphibious sport aircraft that fuses outstanding aeronautical engineering with world-class product design. It has won some of the world’s most prestigious design awards and has inspired a global following. The company has received more than 850 order deposits and first production aircraft are scheduled for summer 2013. ICON Aircraft, initially a Silicon Valley venture-backed startup out of Stanford University, today has its facilities in Southern California, a global hotbed for both automotive design and aerospace engineering.

 ABOUT FAA LIGHT SPORT AIRCRAFT & SPORT PILOT CLASSIFICATIONS:

In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) created a new classification of easy-to-fly and affordable two-person airplanes called Light Sport Aircraft. These airplanes enable a new classification of Sport Pilots to fly in lower altitude, uncongested airspace, during the daytime, and in good weather. The Sport Pilot License focuses on the fundamentals of flying and requires a minimum of 20 hours of in-flight training, undercutting the time and cost of a traditional Private Pilot License by about 50%. Under these new FAA rules, a Sport Pilot can be safely trained and licensed in less than two weeks and under $6,000. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) has described the new rules as “the biggest change in aviation in 50 years.”