ICON Aircraft released details this week about an Angle of Attack (AoA) indicator that will be standard on the company’s A5 amphibious LSA.
The A5's AoA gauge provides a graphical representation of the aircraft wing's condition in relation to a stall, bypassing the traditional, non-direct method of using airspeed as a stall indicator.
“Angle of Attack is likely the single most important parameter that helps a pilot fly safely at all times, and yet this information has not been made readily available in small planes,” said ICON Aircraft Founder and CEO Kirk Hawkins.
“Part of ICON’s mission is to produce one of the safest light aircraft ever created; incorporating an intuitive AoA system in the A5 is just another example of that commitment. Every fighter pilot in the world relies on AoA to help them land, keep them safe from unintended stalls, and max-perform their aircraft.
"This safety technology should be available to more pilots–especially new pilots and those flying small aircraft. ICON’s AoA gauge removes the ambiguity associated with using airspeed and gives our pilots a direct indication of how their wing is performing at any given time.”
The A5’s AoA gauge is an ICON design that intuitively conveys how the wing is flying. The gauge is positioned at the top of the instrument cluster, keeping it as close to the pilot’s line of sight as possible, and incorporates green, yellow, and red sectors to quickly convey how the wing is performing in real time.
More information and a video about the system is available on the ICON site here.