ICON Aircraft announced the construction of a new facility in Tijuana, Mexico, where it will produce composite airframe components for the A5. As part of a revised production plan announced in May, the company decided to produce its own composite components, a manufacturing process that was previously outsourced to several suppliers.

ICON Aircraft announced major changes to this year’s A5 delivery plan. These changes are part of a strategy to improve the A5 production processes and manufacturing supply chain while simultaneously supporting flight training for ICON customers.

ICON Aircraft’s A5 amphibious Light Sport Aircraft has been nominated for the National Aeronautic Association’s (NAA) most prestigious award, the Collier Trophy. The A5 is one of nine nominees for the 2015 Collier Trophy and is the only piston-powered aircraft to be nominated. For 104 years, the Collier Trophy has been awarded annually “for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.” Previous winners of the Collier Trophy include the Boeing 777 and 787, Gulfstream G550 and G650, International Space Station, SpaceShipOne, and the F-22.

This morning at 10 AM CDT at ICON Aircraft’s exhibit at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin, CEO and Founder Kirk Hawkins handed the keys of the first customer A5 to EAA Young Eagles Chairman and aerobatic pilot Sean Tucker, who accepted the aircraft on behalf of the organization, alongside EAA Chairman Jack Pelton. The aircraft, Aircraft Serial Number 001 (ASN-001), will participate in Young Eagles flights that allow children to experience aviation, often for the first time, to give them exposure to and inspire their interest in flying.

On 11 June, FAA officials completed a comprehensive compliance audit at ICON Aircraft’s Tehachapi, California, facility. This allowed them to issue the first S-LSA airworthiness certificate for ICON’s A5 Light Sport amphibian. With this major milestone complete, ICON will now begin customer deliveries for its eagerly anticipated aircraft, which has a backlog of more than 1250 orders.

Structural testing of the ICON A5’s airframe is one of the final steps toward FAA approval and the culmination of years of design, engineering, and testing. Following months of preparation, these tests successfully confirmed that the A5’s airframe can sustain G-force loads well beyond those encountered within the normal flight envelope.

Last night at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, ICON Aircraft unveiled the first production A5, an aircraft the company refers to as Engineering Serial Number 1 (ESN-1). This is the first A5 built from the production design, with production tooling, and using production methods and components. ESN-1 was built over a five-month period, from January to June of 2014, and successfully completed its first flight on 7 July 2014 in Tehachapi, California. This aircraft is one of three that will be used to verify performance and complete FAA approval prior to the start of customer deliveries in May of 2015.

ICON Aircraft has announced that it will relocate to the City of Vacaville in Northern California, located approximately fifty miles northeast of San Francisco. Beginning in the first quarter of 2015, the company will begin operating in a 140,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the Vacaville airport, also known as the Nut Tree Airport. ICON intends to consolidate aircraft manufacturing, sales, training, service, and corporate headquarters at the new location. The move follows an extensive nationwide search for a site that would enable ICON to co-locate all divisions. The move stands to create hundreds, and eventually thousands, of advanced manufacturing-related jobs, while providing economic impact on the region that has been independently estimated to exceed $350 million.