Icon's foldable, 2-seater plane unveiled, available now

Icon's foldable airplane is meant to fill that all-important gap between, say, hang gliders and commercial jets. This 2-seater Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) was unveiled last week to much applause by people with all sorts of cash. From a gadget standpoint, though, the Icon is worth a little deconstruction. It's powered by a rear-facing, reciprocating engine, can be configured for water landing, has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,320 pounds, has a max airspeed of 120 knots (138 mph), and features a dashboard that's meant to be familiar to car drivers. Unlike the Terrafugia, the Icon is not meant to drive up to your house, but we figure you'll be cruising around in some expensive SUV with this thing in tow anyway. And better yet, you can order this thing online with a credit card and a $5,000 deposit. Check out the video of the Icon's unveiling after the break.

[Via FreshCreation]

[frauhottelmann @ Jun 16th 2008 11:27AM]

This is one cool mini aircraft. It's not very fast, but hey, it's cooler then a sports car!

[natels @ Jun 16th 2008 11:27AM]

And probably 100x harder to drive.

[frauhottelmann @ Jun 16th 2008 11:32AM]

Oh well I want to fly it not drive^^ I mean it's still a plane, nothing an amateur should try in the backyard.

[bohsocks @ Jun 16th 2008 11:34AM]

GI Joe will be stoked when he sees this.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 16th 2008 12:17PM]

I learned to fly at John F Kennedy Airport, NYC. Lessons are just $130 per hour and licensing typically runs you about $2500.


The NON pressurized cabin turns me off entirely.

[bohsocks @ Jun 16th 2008 12:46PM]

I typically have trouble getting turned on if there's a lot of pressure, too.

[mikey @ Jun 16th 2008 5:50PM]

"Flashpoint," give me a freak'n break.

Any idea what pressurization does to the costs of buying and, especially maintaining, an aircraft? LSA is the antithesis of pressurization, IFR, etc.... It's all about (relatively) cheap and simple.

[OneLove @ Jun 16th 2008 5:14PM]

This looks like another episode of get money, spend money on girls, cars and partying, go bankrupt, get arrested.

[ScOObyDoo @ Jun 16th 2008 11:29AM]

"It looks just like a sports car - I could fly one".

Uh, no. I bet you can't.

[rufus @ Jun 16th 2008 11:57AM]

Its not the flying thats hard, its the landing.

Rufus

[Idlemind @ Jun 16th 2008 11:31AM]

"You too can join the ranks for the rich and famous...who died thinking they could fly..."

[Rick @ Jun 16th 2008 11:32AM]

Amazing how you can pre-order a mega-buck aircraft but you can't order or pre-order a $500 MSI Wind.

[Kris @ Jun 16th 2008 11:36AM]

Why would you want to give a company an interest free loan?

[barry99705 @ Jun 16th 2008 11:32AM]

Flying is really not that hard. It's the landings that trip people up.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Jun 16th 2008 11:34AM]

Am I the only one who heard him say "getting the prototype in the air"

[frauhottelmann @ Jun 16th 2008 11:38AM]

Yep, he said they want to get it airborne...

[Taylor @ Jun 16th 2008 11:39AM]

No. Why the heck is there such a fanfare event when they haven't even flown the thing!

[poulan @ Jun 16th 2008 1:44PM]

They haven't got it airbourne yet but they HAVE got it drunk at a celeb party and got it to close it's wings without falling over or puking over the bar staff. How many other aircraft can say the same?

[Joe Anstine @ Jun 16th 2008 11:47AM]

its pretty sick but $139,000 for something that they haven't even actually had airborne yet (1:55 in video)...and the website talks about a optional safety parachute that can deploy in case there is a problem. It goes on to say that the parachute has been PROVEN to work...even though they haven't gotten it airborne yet.

[Forrest @ Jun 16th 2008 11:50AM]

Something doesn't have to be capable of flying to test its parachute. In fact, it's precisely FOR things that can't fly where parachutes are the most useful :P

[directive0 @ Jun 16th 2008 11:52AM]

That parachute recovery system is available on other planes already on the market. Not an original or unique idea.

[Alex @ Jun 16th 2008 11:59PM]

For parachutes, see the Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22.

Anyhow, this doesn't bridge the gap between hang gliders and commercial aircraft... Are you guys not aware that there are thousands of small aircraft of varying types available?

And as said, flying is damn easy. Landing, not so much. I've taken off and flown a small airplane without any training but would never try to land it.

[directive0 @ Jun 16th 2008 11:54AM]

Followup to my comment above:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_Recovery_Systems

[ScOObyDoo @ Jun 16th 2008 11:59AM]

Can we submit a list of celebs we'd like to have on the first test flights?

[directive0 @ Jun 16th 2008 12:16PM]

Personally, I find this airframe a little hard to take seriously. Especially when you see the kind of people involved in it's design. Seems like these people are more interested in hosting a fancy star studded unveiling of what by their own admission is a half finished product. And honestly, its a Lake Amphibian that folds up. So what?

[Magallanes @ Jun 16th 2008 12:53PM]

indeed, they don't talk about autonomy, consume and maintenance cost (can be really expensive) and so on.

[Motoken @ Jun 16th 2008 12:38PM]

looks nice, but the price? this seems like another way to expensive thing for me, and probably, by the looks of the party, it is for the rich.

[aeiou @ Jun 16th 2008 3:48PM]

The price is about ballpark for a new airplane in its class. Airplanes are expensive.

[rdoemail @ Jun 16th 2008 1:10PM]

Never wanna do business with a guy named "Crook"

http://www.iconaircraft.com/management.html

[rdoemail @ Jun 16th 2008 1:15PM]

Gotta love the "Reliable 100-hp Rotax 912 ULS Engine". This thing has less Horsepower that a civic. Scary. This company is prob a fraud. Get people to put down a deposit, then the company goes under. They haven't even flown this thing.

[watt @ Jun 17th 2008 12:08AM]

For an aircraft that size, 100hp sounds about right.

[Ian @ Jun 16th 2008 2:19PM]

100hp would be more than adequate for an aircraft that size. It's not a car. 200hp and up is considered "high performance" and requires specific training and licensing.

But yeah, it reeks of a scam.

[granny down east @ Jun 17th 2008 12:02AM]

Aircraft engines are designed to operate at 75% power for hours. Automotive engines usually operate around 15% - 20% power. My old Taylorcraft had a 65 hp engine. Flew like a champ.
A high performance aircraft may or may not have 200 horsepower. Landing gear configuration and constant speed prop play into the mix.
*IF* this delivers, it might be a nice airplane. If it gets less than 10 gph, it's a *really* nice airplane for the price.

[watt @ Jun 16th 2008 1:33PM]

For $139,000 I could buy a late-model Cessna and probably maintain it for a while too. For half that I could buy something very similar to the icon, but proven to have been flyable. has no one at Engadget hears of an LSA before?

[Matt @ Jun 16th 2008 3:20PM]

I think the major selling points of this plane are:

1) Ability to land and take off on water
2) Ability to fly with a sport pilot license (Can you fly a Cessna with Sport Pilot license?)
3) Ability to fold the wings and tow it home (avoid hanger fees, or the airport all together)

Has anyone else combined these features into a two-seater before? I'm pretty sure this is not a scam their board and Engineering teams have some pretty heavy hitters. Vern Raburn was able to get the Eclipse off the ground in a brand new class (Very Light Jet) I'm sure he can help them get their product airborne in an established market segment. Still $140,000 is a lot of coin, get 10 people together and . . . .

[CrymeLord @ Jun 16th 2008 2:37PM]

It's obvious that they had this event to generate advanced revenue to help finish the project.

If you've got $140,000 to spend on an aircraft and you are the type of person who wants to have something when it's brand new, then 5 grand is a no-brainer.

[mike @ Jun 16th 2008 3:11PM]

uhhhh.... well..... what... does somebody know these guys or something?
It is a kind of interesting design. Would be more interesting if they had even flown a prototype one time.
Everybody talking about how great it is and wanting one. Those people won't even remember this day by the time that thing is certified to fly.
Now... the carter copter is an actual interesting vehicle for flight.
There are some cool vids on youtube showing stripped engineering flying models and some fully built out flying models.
There is even a cool vid where they accidentally crash one by forgetting to put the landing gear down. Still.... the crash looks more than survivable.
The auto-gyro is the oldie that's a goody and will be coming 'round again.

- mike

[Robert @ Jun 16th 2008 3:52PM]

Look, when zombies take over and I need a quick way out of town this is the plane I'm using. I can just fold it up in my garage until I need it. Now I just need $150,000... and a garage.

[Andy @ Jun 16th 2008 11:50PM]

There are lots of LSA options out there. Cessna has the 162 which will be ready in 2009, and many companies have LSAs ready to go now. The good/bad - all LSAs have to conform to rather limited requirements, one of which is a max speed of 120kts. LSA license also requires less training, which is probably a bad thing.

I'm building an RV-9A, which will run ~$50k. Of course I have to do all the painstaking labor myself, but it can be rather rewarding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van%27s_Aircraft_RV-9

[Alexander @ Jun 17th 2008 4:43AM]

Is this vehicle has airbags?

[kebabrhyl @ Jun 17th 2008 10:54AM]

Anyone else think it looks like the delta flyer? I love the idea, but maybe the Moller SkyCar M400 is the better choice; let's face it, neither's suitable for trans-atlantic flight, so for impact it's got to be the great big red machine...