Icon Aircraft last week released the details of its remarkable week at AirVenture. The startup LSA manufacturer scored a total of 143 deposits for its composite folding-wing Icon A5 amphibious sport airplane, which pushes the order book to nearly 700, the company said, turning the calendar for first available delivery positions into 2015.
The company went back to the drawing board last year on the wing of the A5, a process that led to a new, cuffed wing that Icon says is nearly “unspinnable.” Icon made the first flight of an A5 with the new wing — which folds for easy storage and transport — just before AirVenture.
For the show, the company lowered its deposit to just $2,000, down from $5,000, and employed packs of salespeople who eschewed the traditional soft sell of airshows for an in-your-face no-holds-barred sales pitch. Last week Steve Pope detailed the carnival-like experience in the Icon tent in his blog, Fly by Wire.
