Icon A-5

Overview

The ICON A5 is a two-seat, single-engine amphibious Light-Sport Aircraft designed and built by ICON Aircraft of Vacaville, California. First flown in 2008 and certified as an S-LSA under an FAA weight exemption (raising the LSA gross-weight ceiling from 1,430 lb to 1,570 lb to accommodate the amphibious-hull airframe), the A5 was conceived specifically for the non-traditional GA buyer: recreational pilots whose mission is water-based exploration rather than cross-country transit.

The configuration is purpose-built rather than adapted. A composite hull seats two side-by-side in a cockpit shaped more like a sports car than a traditional cabin; the high wing folds at the root for trailering and hangar storage; the tricycle landing gear retracts into the sponsons that also stabilise the aircraft on the water. Power is a 100-hp Rotax 912 iS Sport feeding a four-blade pusher propeller (introduced for the 2024 model year alongside a gross-weight increase). Published performance per the current POH (ICA016024-A, 2024): 81 KTAS cruise at 5,000 RPM / 8,000 ft, 428 nm range with 45-min reserve, 13,000 ft service ceiling, 610 fpm climb at VY, and 45 KIAS clean stall.

The A5 is angle-of-attack-centric rather than airspeed-centric: a prominent AOA indicator on the glareshield, paired with FAA-approved spin-resistance demonstrating compliance with 14 CFR 23.221(a)(2), is the airframe’s defining safety story. A standard ballistic parachute system covers the airplane and occupants in the event of loss of control. The S-LSA limits (two-seat, day VFR, sport-pilot eligible) bind the operating envelope; the design intent is the weekend lake trip, not the IFR cross-country.

Key Features for GA Buyers

• Amphibious operation in a sport-pilot airframe. Land or water, paved or grass, with the retractable sponson gear handling the transition. Few certified amphibians sit at the LSA price and pilot-qualification floor.
• Folding wings and trailerability. Wings fold at the root in a few minutes, allowing the airframe to be towed home and stored in a standard garage or transported to launch sites without ferry-flying to a seaplane base.
• Spin-resistant airframe with standard parachute. FAA-approved spin-resistance demonstration plus a standard ballistic recovery system bias the A5 toward the safety-anxious recreational buyer who would not otherwise consider seaplane flying.
• Rotax 912 iS Sport fuel flexibility. The fuel-injected 912 iS Sport accepts 91-octane unleaded auto fuel as well as 100LL avgas, which materially compresses fuel cost at typical lake and coastal operating sites where mogas is reachable.
• Glass cockpit with integrated AOA. Garmin G3X-class panel paired with a primary AOA indicator on the glareshield – the airframe is designed to be flown by reference to AOA, not airspeed alone.

Trade-offs

• Two-seat, day-VFR sport-aircraft envelope. S-LSA category limits the A5 to two seats, day VFR, and sport-pilot operating privileges. No IFR, no night, no third seat. Buyers needing any of those should look outside the LSA class.
• Price-to-utility ratio. New A5s list well above $300,000 as configured – comparable money to a four-seat certified single. The A5 is bought for what it does (amphibious recreational flying), not for transport-economy.
• 428 nm range, 81 KTAS cruise. The mission is local and recreational. Cross-country economics do not favour the A5 against a fixed-gear four-seater at the same hourly cost.
• Service ceiling 13,000 ft. Adequate for terrain avoidance in most US contexts, but mountain-west operators should check density-altitude performance carefully.
• Specialised maintenance and parts pipeline. Rotax-trained service is geographically uneven outside seaplane hubs; the composite amphibious hull is not a job for every airframe shop.

See Also

• Cessna 162 Skycatcher – Cessna’s two-seat LSA (production 2009-2014); the closest in-catalogue analogue to the A5 on pilot qualification, seat count, and class economics, though land-only with fixed gear. The clean direct-LSA comparison. Compare
• Flight Design CT – Currently-produced 100-hp Rotax 912-class LSA, but a fixed-gear high-wing land cross-country traveller. Useful for the buyer weighing the A5’s amphibious mission against the LSA-class cross-country economics it sacrifices. Compare
• Piper PA-18 Super Cub – The legacy ‘land anywhere, take off short, go to remote places’ recreational airframe. The Super Cub on floats is the closest legacy analogue to the A5’s mission, even though the catalogued PA-18 row is the land-gear version. Compare