ICON Aircraft produces 100th A5 sports aircraft

 

 

ICON Aircraft (Vacaville, Calif., U.S.) announced on July 22 that it has completed its 100th A5 amphibious light sport aircraft, destined for delivery to a customer in Key West, Fla., U.S.

The A5’s carbon fiber composite fuselage was produced and bonded at the company’s 300,000-square-foot production facility in Tijuana, Mexico. According to the company, the recently completed 100th A5 was bonded there in January of this year.

The Tijuana facility employs more than 600 people and is designed to support the production of up to 80 aircraft per month. At this location, all carbon fiber composite structures for the A5 are molded via hand layup, trimmed and assembled via adhesive bonding. Some of the painting is done in-house, but most of the finishing takes place at one of the company’s California production facilities.

“Basically what leaves here looks like an airplane,” says Jason Courtney, manufacturing manager at ICON Tijuana, in the below video produced by the company:

 

“Building 100 A5s is a significant milestone for us as a company and for the hundreds of ICON employees who have worked tirelessly to get this incredible airplane into the hands of owners,” says Thomas Wieners, president and COO of ICON Aircraft. “It took us longer than anticipated to get here, but this is just the beginning. The best reward is seeing owners out there flying their planes and having their own adventures across the country, and then connecting with our growing community. We remain focused on bringing adventure and sport flying to experienced pilots as well as those who’ve always dreamed of flying their own airplane.”

To see more of the A5 in flight, check out this video ICON released to celebrate the 100th A5: