The A5 Amphibious Aircraft: Bridging World Class Engineers and Industrial Designers
We recently read an article in Product Design and Development magazine, one of many different trade magazines we read to stay up to date on the latest trends in design and manufacturing, about the A5 Amphibious Aircraft designed by ICON Aircraft. The aircraft is a very modern and elegant design that communicates beauty, performance, safety, and adventure. One of the most exciting aspects of the aircraft is that the A5 not only flies the skies, but also cruises on water. The goal of ICON Aircraft, a premium designer of amphibious sport aircraft, is to bring energy and excitement back to aviation and set a new standard for light sport aircraft.
“Aviation is the most amazing recreational activity one can pursue, so why is it that the look and feel of the industry doesn’t reflect that?” asks Steen Strand, COO of ICON Aircraft. “All the other recreational categories, such as motorcycles, boats and jet skis, or snowmobiles, are really exciting and have really cool products and brands; and for a variety of reasons, aviation hasn’t kept pace with them, so we thought it was time to bring that energy and excitement back to aviation.”
The A5 reveals how industrial design and engineering innovation can challenge a static market. “The success of ICON is achieved through bridging amazing airplane engineers with world class industrial designers from the transportation industry,” explains Strand. “From an aesthetic point of view, we initially leveraged Nissan’s advanced design studio in San Diego. On the technical side, we kept the engineering in-house with a team led by Matthew Gionta from Scale Composites.”
The cockpit looks much like that of an automobile and not an aircraft. The idea was to make the user feel familiar with it from the start, rather than intimidated. This plane is ideal for anyone already in, or looking to get into, recreational flying. The company leveraged exceptional industrial design and engineering to deliver an inspirational product to consumers. You can read more about the ICON A5 here.
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