Fold-Up Plane Brings Fun to Flying

ICON

“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:

  1. Discuss the components of a situation analysis: company, general industry, trends, key competitors, technology, legal, etc.
  2. Review the Icon A5 product and company.
  3. Company Web site: http://iconaircraft.com/
  4. Videos:

https://youtu.be/TVlM4-1K9OE

https://youtu.be/WHTSvwiajfg

  1. Ask students what data they would want to know in order to make a marketing decision for this product.
  2. 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.)
  3. 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

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