Getting a pilot’s license isn’t the grueling chore it once was, thanks to the “sport pilot certificate,” which requires just 20 hours of training. Built for amateurs and enthusiasts alike, the Icon A5 is a slim and seductive two-seat plane with impossibly simple controls that allow even novice pilots to easily handle its triple-digit speeds. But just in case they can’t, the craft can deploy its own super-sized parachute and safely float everyone back to earth.
The Icon A5 two-seat plane
The $189,000 hobbyist’s dream has a 345-mile range and wings that fold up, so you can store it in your garage—no hangar necessary—and haul it anywhere with a trailer. Try that with a Cessna. And don’t worry about finding a runway: the A5 is as at home on water as it is in the air. Forget about the elusive flying car, the flying Jet Ski is here.
