June 17, 2015—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. The FAA audit team reviewed ICON’s production, quality, and compliance procedures and manuals. The audit team included Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASI) from the Washington, D.C., Oklahoma City, and Los Angeles offices, who assessed the manufacturing facility and performed the airworthiness review of the first customer A5.

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. ICON will deliver its first customer aircraft on 20 July 2015 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Wisconsin. Several A5 aircraft will be present at the event in late July, with both owner demonstration flights and static displays. The company will transition serial production to its new 140,000-square-foot facility in Vacaville, California, in September.

Icon has taken more than 1250 deposits for the A5. The price tag for the first 100 Founders Edition airplanes is $247,000.