ICON Aircraft has announced that it will relocate to the City of Vacaville in Northern California, located approximately fifty miles northeast of San Francisco. Beginning in the first quarter of 2015, the company will begin operating in a 140,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the Vacaville airport, also known as the Nut Tree Airport. ICON intends to consolidate aircraft manufacturing, sales, training, service, and corporate headquarters at the new location. The move follows an extensive nationwide search for a site that would enable ICON to co-locate all divisions. The move stands to create hundreds, and eventually thousands, of advanced manufacturing-related jobs, while providing economic impact on the region that has been independently estimated to exceed $350 million.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued its decision to grant ICON Aircraft’s petition for exemption to allow an increased takeoff weight for ICON’s A5 amphibious Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) up to a maximum of 1680 lbs. The exemption would accommodate, among other safety features, a Spin-Resistant Airframe (SRA) which enables the A5 to better avoid loss-of-control scenarios due to stall/spins. The company announced in February of 2012 that the A5 had been successfully tested to and met the full FAA Part 23 standard for spin resistance. The FAA exemption will allow the A5 to become the first conventional production aircraft to meet this rigorous safety standard.

ICON Aircraft released details this week about its Angle of Attack (AoA) system, a safety feature that will be standard on the company’s A5 Light Sport Aircraft. ICON has completed the design, development, and testing of its AoA system, a feature rarely seen in General Aviation aircraft. ICON has also released a new video demonstrating the safety benefits and real-world implications of flying with AoA.

ICON Aircraft announced earlier this year that it successfully completed spin-resistance testing of its A5 amphibious Light Sport Aircraft to the standard specified by the FAA for Part 23 certified aircraft. This historic achievement will make the A5 the first conventional production aircraft to be designed to and fully meet this standard once it enters production.