Startup Planning Semi-Autonomous Light Aircraft

California company Airhart Aeronautics says it is developing a semi-autonomous flight system for light aircraft that its founder says sharply increases flight safety. Autoweek is reporting that Nikita Ermoshkin, a former SpaceX engineer, hopes to roll out a modified Sling TSi in which electronics look after keeping the airplane in the flight envelope. The pilot only operates an "airspeed controller" and joystick (no rudder pedals) and the fly-by-wire system, provisionally called Airhart Assist, keeps him or her out of trouble.

“The big reason flying is dangerous is because there’s only one pilot in the plane and that pilot is a huge single point of failure,” said Ermoshkin. “There’s a thousand things you have to be doing when flying an airplane...." With all the gear humming in the background, the pilot is free to concentrate on high-level decision making rather than the sometimes-thin performance margins that keep the plane flying. “We are trying to automate as much of the ‘automation’ part of (aviate, navigate, communicate), or the aviating part of ANC, so that your brain is a lot less loaded by physically manipulating the controls to focus on the things that computers aren’t good at doing but humans are, which is decision-making and risk management.”

Ermoshkin says the first planes out of his shop will cost about $500,000 but he's hoping economies of scale and developing technology will cut the cost to $100,000. The first 50 aircraft will be offered as kits in late 2026 but after that the company plans to build complete aircraft.