As soon as I walked into the Icon booth at AirVenture, my eyes immediately focused on the paint scheme of the demo A5 amphibious aircraft sitting front and center. The green paint scheme wasn’t anything I thought about. It just drew me toward the airplane. Not surprisingly, it turned out the new color scheme—one of three—was appropriately labeled electric green. I guess it worked on me.
After introducing new members of the company’s senior management—such as CEO Jason Huang, senior vice president of operations Stephane D’Haene, and Warren Curry, vice president of sales, marketing, flight operations and service—the company released the news that the Icon will soon become an aircraft certified in the primary category. Ultimately, certification will pave the way for the A5 to be exported to and registered in countries that do not recognize the light sport model of the aircraft. Currently, even for US customers, the A5 can only visit the Bahamas in the Caribbean, for example. Other islands within the aircraft’s range don’t recognize the A5′s LSA classification. The company will continue to offer the LSA version of the A5.
