“Load. Drive. Fly.” This is the mantra of ICON Aircraft’s A5 model plane, an innovative fold-up plane that can be trailered to a location, then take-off and land on either water or land. While there are other aircraft with foldable wings, the ICON A5 positions itself as a fun, accessible approach to flying.
The spin-resistant airplane (with complete airplane parachute) is a small, light-weight aircraft that pilots can quickly learn to fly. With foldable wings, retractable landing gear, and a high visibility canopy, the two-seater makes airplanes more accessible for people who want to fly for fun.
The ICON A5 comes with a custom-towing trailer, can range 427 nm and has a speed of 109 mph. The base price is $189,00 plus options that can quickly take the price up to around $250,000. The recently released plane already has more than 1,500 orders, and estimated delivery dates in 2019.
Come fly with me.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss the components of a situation analysis: company, general industry, trends, key competitors, technology, legal, etc.
- Review the Icon A5 product and company.
- Company Web site: http://iconaircraft.com/
- Videos:
- Ask students what data they would want to know in order to make a marketing decision for this product.
- Divide students into teams. Have each team use laptops to do general research to answer the questions above (Ex: overview of industry, size, growth, new technologies, environmental impact, etc.)
- Debrief the exercise by compiling information on the white board. Does this give a good picture of the situation faced by Icon Aircraft?
Source: Bloomberg News
