Look good?

They have not spent a bundle on a Fancy dog and pony show at Oshkosh

http://generalaviationnews.com/2016/05/ ... off-staff/

Icon slows down production, lays off staff.

I'm curious how production could be any slower? I'm also curious how make less results in more profit?

The explanations sound bogus to me, they are out of money, and it would not surprise me if bankruptcy is looming. Their pricing structure is all based on economies of scale, and now they have even less scale than before.

Mike C.

Sad but it wouldn't surprise me either if they are in financial trouble and trying to preserve cash until the next financing round. 80m raised so far. One thing for sure is they need PR help.

As far as I could tell, that was their only visible competency, so if that's gone, well...

Mike C.

Seems like the standard tech startup...all hype and marketing to attract investors, no "real" product to sell.

I was totally fooled. Fortunately, I was a little short of cash a couple of years ago.

No one knows their money situation, but their explanation could make sense if you just read between the lines a little.

What Kirk is telling us is that in the big push to keep the hype going, they put together those 3 prototypes without any regard to manufacturability, and now they are realizing they can't build those things at any reasonable rate. So they need another year to redesign everything in a way that will allow them to actually manufacture it. Sounds plausible to me

What I don't understand though is why did they get themselves into that contract boondoggle just now, when they must have known about their manufacturing problems for quite a while.

So you are telling me that *10 years* after they are founded, Icon just NOW realized they need to design something that can be made?

What the heck have they been doing all these years?


Unfortunately, it does sound plausible that Icon has been negligent in actually designing a manufacturable product. This is exactly the sort of outcome when people ignorant of what it takes to run an aircraft manufacturing operation start selling airplanes.

The fact they laid off production workers says production is not going to happen for a very long time. All the investment of hiring and training those workers is now lost.

I expect it will take substantially longer than a year to redesign the airplane.

I expect Icon bankruptcy within 12 months.

Mike C.

You know what they have been doing - generating hype.

Seriously, though, you know how it goes. When you are designing a new product, you don't think about manufacturing, you just want to make one that will wow the buyers. You figure you'll worry about "boring" manufacturing later. Then, when the orders start pouring in, you go "oh s$%&t, how do I make these things?". Rookie mistake, but they are the rookies who never built anything before.

Which means nothing they have said about pricing, delivery, or schedule means anything. They simply don't know what they are doing and you don't want to be flying their homework project.


Rookie mistake is not hiring someone who isn't a rookie to run the place.

Mike C.

It is not trivial to move from building one off experimental aircraft to demonstrate to gaining a production certificate from the FAA to mass produce certificated aircraft. http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/production_approvals/prod_cert/

If ICON has no one who has taken an aircraft from concept to production they are going to do many more rookie mistakes. A new company cannot afford to not have some folks with experience getting a new design into production.

Yep, that's pretty much is what I am saying.

Icon A5 isn't certified, it's an LSA. I am a bit unclear on what kind of approvals are needed to manufacture LSAs. Can someone explain?

Icon A5 isn't certified, it's an LSA. I am a bit unclear on what kind of approvals are needed to manufacture LSAs. Can someone explain?