ICON

ICON Aircraft, Inc. is an aircraft manufacturing company based in Vacaville, California, specializing in the development and certification of the ICON A5 amphibious light sport aircraft (LSA). The company was founded in 2006 by Kirk Hawkins and Steen Strand, both Stanford graduates, in response to the establishment of the light-sport aircraft class of aircraft and sport pilot certificate class of pilot by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2004. Hawkins, a former F-16 pilot in the United States Air Force and Boeing 757 pilot for American Airlines, and Strand, a product designer and founder of Freebord, a skateboard company, developed a proof of concept aircraft that flew more than 700 development flights from 2008 to 2014. The first production aircraft was completed in 2014 and entered production in 2016. ICON has completed four rounds of equity financing and has brought significant coverage to the LSA industry since the A5’s launch, although the company has encountered legal, financial, developmental and safety issues over the years. The company is committed to focusing on the light-sport aircraft market and has acknowledged the possibility of releasing additional models in the future.