Plane & Pilot Magazine  │  ICON A5 Has Entered The Building  │  Thursday, June 18, 2015 

The ICON A5 Has Entered The Building 

Plane & Pilot’s Marc C. Lee flies the ICON A5 

By Marc C. Lee 

Not since the 1930s has 

airplane innovation been 

impacted as much as it was 

yesterday when ICON 

unveiled their hotly 

anticipated A5 amphibious 

aircraft to the public 

through a handful of pilot 

journalists. It was the first 

time any pilot outside of the factory test team has been allowed 

to experience this amazing aircraft. 

For almost a decade since the A5 was nothing but a crudely‐drawn sketch on a napkin, 

tongues have been wagging and volumes of words have been written about the 

innovation and intense design going into this elusive aircraft. Fans began putting 

deposits on the A5 after a mere announcement and a mockup static model. Since then 

ICON has embarked on what might be the greatest design challenge in aviation 

history. 

Yesterday, it became clear that the company succeeded. The list of milestones and 

firsts is long and merits an article in itself, but the bottom line is that the ICON A5 will 

change the general aviation world. An airplane that has met and superseded any 

expectation, my guess is that a lot of aviation know‐it‐alls will be eating their share of 

humble pie in the coming months. Why all the hyperbole? Because the A5 is that 

good. 

The A5 was designed around the idea that flying is fun. Period. That small statement 

has driven tens of thousands of hours of intense design and engineering by the 

greatest minds in the industry today. Every fastener was thought out; every curve 

considered for its function and for how it makes a pilot feel. In the cockpit, every 

nuance of control was designed, re‐designed, and re‐designed again until every 

control movement put a smile on a pilot’s face. The result is unprecedented. 

The biggest story, though – and there is not enough space here to tell it all – is that 

ICON has succeeded where no other airplane manufacturer has: they have designed a 
Plane & Pilot Magazine  │  ICON A5 Has Entered The Building  │  Thursday, June 18, 2015 

truly spin‐resistant wing. Imagine pulling the stick back in your favorite GA airplane 

until the airframe shudders like a bronco with the wrong size bit in its mouth. Now 

imagine at the moment when the airplane stops flying, shoving a boot‐full of rudder 

with the stick held against your gut. Now imagine that same airplane, shuddering a bit 

more but flying in a controlled fashion and even banking to the right or left. While 

slightly climbing. That’s the ICON A5. 

A few words can’t describe the feeling; the hesitation that a pilot reared in 

convention GA feels when stomping on a rudder pedal at 800 feet AGL at the top of a 

deep stall. The trust it takes to believe that a world‐changing wing design will keep 

you alive while performing the one thing a pilot should never do. And consider the 

intense joy felt when the result is as unremarkable as a passing breeze. What ICON 

has done here is special, and the aviation world should and must take notice.

The A5 has been engineered with a control feel that approaches criminal in its 

sensuousness. The feeling of putting the A5 into a bank is like the smooth cabernets 

and sauvignons of the Napa Valley where our flight tests are taking place. The control 

harmony reminds me of a DeHavilland Chipmunk or a T‐38. Think it and the airplane 

obeys. 

From power‐off glides to water landings to takeoffs to hard‐surface runways, the A5 is 

a special aircraft. Marketed mostly to non‐pilots, I feel the A5 will change how we look 

at everything from flight training to instrument panels. In fact, another huge story in 
Plane & Pilot Magazine  │  ICON A5 Has Entered The Building  │  Thursday, June 18, 2015 

the ICON saga is the introduction of the angle‐of‐attack (AOA) indicator. In the A5 it is 

the primary instrument, and using it was transformative, fun, and educational to every 

degree. Though ICON didn’t invent the idea (the military has been flying the “alpha” 

for decades), their success with the A5 will prove to general aviation once and for all 

that AOA indicators make sense and should be required in every aircraft, but that’s a 

fight for another day. 

For now, I can report that ICON has a winner here. An amphibious aircraft that brings 

together the best of water and sky, it puts passion back in aviating. It is an experience 

as pleasant as a furry puppy, as intense as a passionate kiss, as rewarding as sun, sky, 

and water can be, and as fun as anything your pilot’s mind can think of. And if 

pragmatic success comes from this airplane, our industry will be changed forever. 

For now we can sleep safe knowing that there is still joy and passion in aviation. That 

for all the airport closures and foreign buy‐outs, flying is still something special. It’s a 

world that some of us will stay in no matter the tribulation. While the rest of GA 

argues over 3 knots of speed and 32 lbs. of payload, I’ll be out in the sun with my 

elbow on an open windowsill enjoying the lake water spraying my swim suit as I bank 

around the hills and valleys of Napa. All of it courtesy of the ICON A5. Look out world.