Icon’s Mission of Outreach

Icon’s Mission of Outreach
ICON Aircraft calls itself “a consumer
sport plane manufacturer.”
Kirk Hawkins, an
accomplished engineer, former
U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter pilot
and avid power sports enthusiast,
founded the company. After learning
of the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) major regulatory
changes in ’04 that created
the light sport aircraft category
and sport pilot license, Hawkins
conceived his enterprise in ’05
while attending Stanford
University Business School.

Since then, ICON Aircraft’s sole
purpose has been to bring the freedom,
fun, and adventure of flying
to all who have dreamed of flight,
whether they are existing pilots or
other recreation enthusiasts.
ICON Aircraft believes that consumer-
focused sport aircraft can
do for sport flying what personal
watercraft did for boating. “ICON
aircraft are not only designed to
deliver an amazing and safe flying
experience, but also to inspire us
the way great sports cars do,”
explains the company.

A venture-backed, early stage
company out of Silicon Valley,
ICON Aircraft based its operations
in Southern California,
which is a hotbed for aerospace
engineering, automotive design,
and power sports activities.
ICON’s engineering and development
team came from Burt
Rutan’s famed Scaled Composites,
which created such record-setting
projects as Voyager, Global Flyer,
the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne,
and Virgin Galactic’s
SpaceShipTwo.

After years of engineering development
in collaboration with
world-class industrial designers,
ICON Aircraft debuted the first of
its line of sport planes, the Icon
A5, in June ’08. The Icon A5 is a
bold, elegant design that communicates
beauty, performance, safety,
and most importantly, fun.