Briefing: September 2017

Icon started to deliver airplanes to customers in June, and let them take them home and fly them wherever they want, the company said in its annual newsletter. The first deliveries went to owners in Seattle, Montana and California. To support these A5s, Icon said it trained authorized maintainers at their home airports. We are continuing to grow the third-party partner network to service upcoming deliveries that arent near factory service centers, currently in Vacaville and Tampa, Icon said. The company also said it has trained more than 125 pilots at its two Icon Flight Centers, and added that it hopes to deliver 15 more aircraft by the end of this year and ramp up to 200 deliveries in 2018.

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, August 01, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Icon has begun delivering its A5 aircraft to customers, training pilots and maintainers, with plans to significantly ramp up production in the coming year.
EAA AirVenture saw record attendance with unique displays including B-29 bombers and a Blue Origin rocket, while an aging 747 freighter is being converted into an Air Force One replica for a tourist attraction.
A potential disaster was narrowly averted in San Francisco when an Air Canada A320 almost landed on a busy taxiway instead of the runway, prompting a last-minute go-around.
General aviation groups are actively opposing a proposal to privatize air traffic control, fearing it would give too much power to airlines and neglect the needs of GA and business flyers.

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Icon Starts A5 Deliveries

Icon started to deliver airplanes to customers in June, and let them “take them home and fly them wherever they want,” the company said in its annual newsletter. The first deliveries went to owners in Seattle, Montana and California. To support these A5s, Icon said it trained authorized maintainers at their home airports. “We are continuing to grow the third-party partner network to service upcoming deliveries that aren’t near factory service centers, currently in Vacaville and Tampa,” Icon said. The company also said it has trained more than 125 pilots at its two Icon Flight Centers, and added that it hopes to deliver 15 more aircraft by the end of this year and ramp up to 200 deliveries in 2018.

747 Freighter Transforms Into Air Force One Replica

What happens to old freighters when they’re no longer needed? One aging 747, painted in the fading green-and-white livery of Evergreen International, has been on the ramp at Quonset Airport, in Rhode Island, for a couple of years now, and this summer began to morph into a replica of Air Force One. Franklin Exhibits, based in New York, owns the airplane. They told the local TV news they plan to replicate every detail of the presidential aircraft, inside and out, to create a tourist attraction. Fresh blue-and-white exterior paint has been applied, and crews have begun work on the interior. No details yet on when the replica will open to the public, or where it will be based.