ICON Aircraft Receives Record 143 Orders at 2011 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Show
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - 2:54pm
Unprecedented Sales Raise over $28,000 for EAA Young Eagles
LOS ANGELES (August 4, 2011)—ICON Aircraft announced that it received 143 deposits for its A5 amphibious Light Sport Aircraft during the weeklong 2011 EAA AirVenture Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The new orders take ICON’s order book to position #694, and represent record levels of interest for sport flying and the ICON A5 specifically.
To celebrate EAA AirVenture and support the Young Eagles, ICON offered a special promotion during the week that lowered the deposit for an A5 from $5,000 to $2,000 and also matched 10% of each deposit value ($200) with a contribution to EAA Young Eagles (www.youngeagles.org), a non-profit organization aimed at exposing youth to aviation. The company’s orders for the week generated over $28,000 for Young Eagles.
“We are both thrilled and humbled by the overwhelming interest in sport flying and the ICON A5,” said ICON founder and CEO Kirk Hawkins. “The unprecedented 143 deposits demonstrate the tremendous demand for ICON’s consumer-focused approach toward aviation and its blend of world-class design with engineering. Additionally, given ICON’s core mission to grow aviation by reaching out to all those who have only dreamed about it, especially the younger generation, we are also excited to be able to support the Young Eagles with such a material financial donation. There are millions of people out there who would love to fly; we just need to reach out to them with products that inspire them.”
ICON Vice President of Sales Craig Bowers added, “Although we anticipated increased sales because of the Oshkosh/Young Eagles promotion, this year’s Oshkosh sales significantly exceeded our estimates. This order rate is even more impressive given that deliveries have not yet started, and the positions we are currently assigning are mid-2015 deliveries. Customers are locking in their delivery positions now because they expect a surge in orders once production starts, and we believe we’re seeing just the tip of the iceberg. It’s an exciting time for aviation.”
ICON continues to work toward starting the production of the A5, and announced during the show that their flying prototype aircraft made its first flight with its production wing design on Thursday the 25th of July.
For more information, visit www.iconaircraft.com.
ABOUT ICON AIRCRAFT:
ICON Aircraft is a consumer sport plane manufacturer founded by Kirk Hawkins and Steen Strand while at Stanford University shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enacted regulation changes in 2004 that created the new sport flying category. Kirk is an engineer, former U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter pilot, and graduate of Stanford Business School. Steen, a former investment banker and Harvard graduate, holds a Masters in Engineering from Stanford in Product Design and is a serial entrepreneur. A privately funded company, ICON Aircraft’s base of operations is in Southern California, which is a hotbed for 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 planes called Light Sport Aircraft that that 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, which is half the time and cost of a traditional Private Pilot License. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) described the new rules as “the biggest change in aviation in 50 years.”
ABOUT EAA YOUNG EAGLES:
The Young Eagles program was launched in 1992 by EAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association, based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The program’s mission is to provide a meaningful flight experience – free of charge – in a general aviation aircraft for young people (primarily between the ages of 8 and 17). Since the program began, more than 1.5 million Young Eagles have flown under the auspices of the program. These flights have been provided through the generosity of more than 43,000 EAA member volunteer pilots. Countless other volunteers support the flights. Young Eagle flights have been conducted in every state in America, each province in Canada, and in more than 90 other countries.
