ICON is proud to announce that the A5 will be the first production aircraft in history to be designed to and completely comply with the Federal Aviation Administration's full-envelope Part 23 spin-resistance standards once production starts. This is a tremendous safety advancement that can significantly reduce the number of loss-of-control accidents resulting from stall/spin scenarios, which are the most significant cause of fatal General Aviation accidents.
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ICON is intensely focused on delivering an aircraft that is safe and fun to fly for sport pilots of all skill levels. Because sport flying typically occurs at low altitude where stalls/spins are most unforgiving and dangerous, ICON felt that it was particularly important to explore ways to minimize these types of accidents. Spin resistance has been an extremely challenging project and represents a historic achievement for the ICON team.
The rigorous flight-testing regimen validating this result was flown by Len Fox, a globally recognized test pilot and one of the world's leading experts on spin testing. Fox tested over 360 test cases with a wide range of control positions, power settings, and centers of gravity. The wing design is unique, with cuffs on the outboard panels and multiple proprietary airfoils across the span of the wing. Additionally, these specialized airfoils used for spin resistance were not suited to the no-flap wing design ICON had previously planned to use on the A5, so ICON engineers chose to reintroduce wing flaps to preserve takeoff performance on the water. - FMI: ICON pr