Seaplane of the Future Icon A5

The Icon A5 is the world’s first Light Sport Aircraft with a Spin-Resistant Airframe (SRA). The seaplane is loaded with innovative features, such as retractable landing gear, spin-resistant airframe, angle of attack gauge, GPS moving map and more.

The Icon A5 is indeed a joyride, both inside and out. The Icon’s founder and CEO Kirk Hawkins enlisted top designers from Honda and BMW, along with programmers from Virgin Galactic, to create a cutting-edge aircraft with the sharp aesthetics of a sports car. Constructed mostly of carbon-fiber materials, the plane—which can take off from land or water—features water-resistant seating material on the interior and retractable wings on the exterior for easy storage and transportation. A simplified and intuitive panel in the cockpit adds to the aircraft’s sleek style and offers appeal to new pilots. It even has a complete airplane parachute, so if things go really wrong an aircraft can float softly to the ground.

The Icon A5 is a two-seat light-sport amphibian constructed mostly of carbon fiber materials pushed through the skies by a 100 hp Rotax 912 iS mounted at the back of the fuselage. With its folding wings the airplane is made to be transportable, so customers won’t have to contend with the rising cost of airport storage if they want to trailer it back home. At 23 feet long, it’s also small, roughly the size of a crew-cab, long-bed pickup. It is 8.1 feet high with a modest wingspan of 34.8 feet. The landing gear retracts for water landings, and the wings fold so that it can be carried on a trailer. Because of its light weight (1,510 pounds), it needs only a 100-horsepower engine to propel it to a top speed of 110 mph and a range of up to 450 miles. It’ll even run on pump gas.