The next chapter in this 8 year odyssey without a single delivery to a paying customer is Chapter 11. When this occurs, Hawkins must give back his MBA from Stanford because he has disgraced and embarrassed this prestigious school with a self-inflicted and self-imploding worst business decision ever.
As to the 'why", just my opinion. For 8 years Icon has perfectly implemented a bold, hard sell consumer recreational product marketing strategy to the yahoo jet skiers and extreme sports knuckleheads. They have promoted the airplane in an over-the-top irresponsible and cavalier manner telling these target groups that the airplane is a just a jet ski with wings, is so simple to fly and all you need is 20 hours to get a license to fly it. Somewhere along the way Icon had an epiphany. Holy crap, all these jerk-offs holding deposit slots drank the cool-aid they've been hard selling and now they're scared s**tless that after training and delivery, they're all going to crash and burn in droves. Holy crap, they have to transfer all liability and other terms to the owners or Icon will be sued out of existence.