Icon Aircraft’s Kirk Hawkins would be proud. While in a Tacoma-area Apple Store this past weekend to buy a graduation gift, I struck up a conversation with one of the store employees. When I told him I published General Aviation News, in response to his asking what I did for a living, he immediately asked, “Have you heard of the Icon A5?” My grin and nod confirmed my verbal, “Oh, yes!” The salesman then got quite excited as we discussed the Icon specifically, and flying in general over the next few minutes. He wanted to know what I thought of the A5, was it safe, what about other light aircraft, safety and more.
The content of the conversation, while important, takes a back seat to the fact a conversation took place at all. He was a young man (mid- to late-20s I’d guess) who was captivated by the Icon. He’s not a pilot, and he casually mentioned it would take him 5-7 years to save up the “$120,000 it’ll cost to buy one”. A matter of fact rather than a wistful hope. While I’ve not met Mr. Hawkins, I have no doubt he would be quite pleased to hear this conversation took place and more importantly, that it was instigated by a non-pilot. The kind of person the A5 was designed to target. Bulls-eye!
Kirk would also be proud that it happened in an Apple store where design and function are perfectly combined with the end consumer in mind.
He’d have to save and wait a lot less if he had partners!
David A. Kruger
The Aircraft Partnership Association
TEL: +1.972.334.0403
http://www.TheAPA.com
Creating Partnerships that fly! â„¢
Agreed. I told him as much, but didn’t refer to it here as this was more about the idea that Icon had attracted a potential customer.