Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

A little more than a year after it announced plans to slow production and realign its manufacturing flow and supply chain, ICON Aircraft has resumed customer deliveries of the amphibious light-sport A5 and is working on an upgraded version for its model year 2018. Icon recently handed over the first six A5s, the first deliveries since announcing the production delay in spring 2016.

 


“We’ve had a challenging year for sure, but the A5 is now ready. In fact, it’s more than ready,” said ICON CEO and founder Kirk Hawkins. “We’re now ramping up production and delivering aircraft.”

 


The deliveries took place in June and July to owners in Washington, California, Montana and Texas. Calling the resumption of deliveries “a defining moment for us,” Hawkins added, “It’s cool to finally watch, especially after all the blood, sweat, and literal tears that have gone into creating this very special flying machine. We have a lot more work ahead still, but this is a proud moment for the team and our customers.”

 


In May 2016, ICON announced a year delay in production, laid off workers and terminated contractors as it shifted production and altered its processes.

 


“The unfortunate fact of the matter is that ICON had an overly aggressive production schedule for 2016,” Hawkins said at the time.

 


Since then, ICON has made significant investments, including building a new facility in Tijuana, Mexico to produce composite airframe components—work that had previously been outsourced. The facility is capable of building carbon fiber airframes at a high rate, ICON said.

 


ICON also opened a flight center in Tampa, joining the Northern California center, and the two collectively have training 125 students.

 


As for the upgraded A5, the company said an improved version is in production for model year 2018 that incorporates “numerous design refinements to improve usability and serviceability.” Details of these enhancements are anticipated in upcoming weeks with the first of the model year 2018 variants anticipated to be ready for delivery in September.

 


Production is gradually ramping up this year, and will accelerate in 2018, the company said, noting it is offering a promotion during AirVenture that reduces deposits for an A5 delivery position to $1,000.

 


Meanwhile, the company is turning its attention to support, building a parts distribution network, establishing a maintenance training program, and appointing the first ICON-authorized service partners, Ace Aviation in Washington and Neptune Aviation Services in Montana.

 


Among the new owners are Mike Sievert in Seattle, Julian Gates in Southern California, Bill Harris in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 


The company claims to have deposits for 1,800 of the aircraft valued at $450 million.

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