On Sunday, September 22nd, Airhart Aeronautics offered an exclusive sneak peek of the much-anticipated Airhart Sling during the Celebration of Aerospace event at the Santa Monica Airport (SMO) in Santa Monica, California. This rather special ‘show and tell’ event introduced the hybrid prototype that was made in coordination with Sling Aircraft, a general aviation aircraft manufacturer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. With a limited number of production slots available, Airhart is offering a VIP experience to a select number of potential customers.

Up Close and Personal: A Preview of What’s to Come

The Airhart Sling was quietly unveiled on Sunday, September 22nd, in Santa Monica, California, offering a glimpse to a select group of potential customers. Airhart Aeronautics believes in fostering personal connections with one-on-one interactions that go beyond the typical sales experience. This approach allows early adopters to fully appreciate the company’s mission of making aviation more accessible, easier, and safer.

There are only fifty production slots for this aircraft, so the sneak peek was designed for a small group of customers. The limited audience was to ensure they got a deep understanding of both the advanced technology behind the aircraft and Airhart’s broader vision. This personalized engagement reflects Airhart’s commitment to building a close-knit community of the first owners, offering them a front-row seat at every step of the journey—from design to the moment of lift-off.

Airhart Aeronautics aims to make this aircraft easier to fly than to drive a car. The company is dedicated to creating the safest and easiest airplane ever engineered. This next-generation aircraft was eventually designated the Airhart Sling.

A closer look at the Airhart Sling

The Airhart Sling utilizes a lightweight airframe from a Sling Aircraft model known as the Sling TSi. This aircraft was first developed in 2018 and is marketed as a homebuilt aircraft that is sold in kit form. The airframe of the Sling TSi features a low-wing configuration with fixed tricycle landing gear. The wing and much of the fuselage are reinforced to increase strength and reduce drag. The standard Sling TSi is powered by a Rotax 915is engine, which can provide the aircraft with over 140 horsepower. It also utilizes 3-bladed Airmaster Propellers, which are constant-speed propellers. Overall, the basic Sling TSi has the following performance specifications:

Capacity

One pilot and three passengers

Length

23.54 feet

Height

Eight feet

Wingspan

31.3 feet

Gross weight

2,094 pounds

Cruise speed

148 knots (170 miles per hour)

Range

880 nautical miles (1,010 miles)

Service ceiling

18,000 feet

However, beyond the airframe, Airhart Aeronautics has made several major improvements. The focus of Airhart Aeronautics was to improve the avionics system to ensure it is both safer and easier to fly. In talks with Simple Flying, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airhart Aeronautics, Nikita Ermoshkin, spoke about the upgrades made to the Airhart Sling. He stated,

“[The Airhart Sling] features Airhart’s brand-new avionics system, which has been redesigned from the ground up to be really easy to use and understand. The avionics system does not have the learning curve of traditional avionics systems. On top of that, the aircraft has something called Airhart Assist, which is a full fly-by-wire control system that makes flying the airplane both extremely easy and safe.”

The Airhart Assist is also one of the most prominent safety features of the newly designed aircraft. Specifically, the Airhart Assist system is always engaged and can interrupt the pilot’s ability to lose control of the aircraft. As a result of this, many spins and stalls are virtually impossible in the Airhart Sling, which greatly improves the safety ability of the aircraft.

The upgraded Airhart Sling also improved the range of the aircraft, as it can reach a range of about 1,000 nautical miles (1,150 miles). This amounts to about four hours of flight time at 150 knots (173 miles per hour) of true airspeed. Ermoshkin demonstrated the abilities of the new Airhart Sling as he flew the aircraft from Long Beach to Santa Monica to display the aircraft for the first time.

Ermoshkin also spoke about the future of the Airhart Sling. He told Simple Flying,

“The Airhart Sling is really just step one for us. The long-term goal is to get to a fully vertically integrated general aviation airplane that can be sold for $100,000. This airplane will have four seats and fly 200 knots. That’s the long-term vision for us, as we will be building incremental aircraft along the way. Our next aircraft will hopefully be a light-sport aircraft instead of a kit-built experimental aircraft like the Airhart Sling. After that, we plan to go for full Part 23 certification.”

Ermoshkin believes that the Airhart Sling will appeal to a wide market. This includes existing pilot owners, brand-new pilots who do not currently own a plane, and even individuals who have yet to earn their private pilot license. He believes the ease of flying on the aircraft will reduce potential barriers for new pilots. Initially, selling the Airhart Sling as an experimental kit aircraft would allow Airhart Aeronautics to establish a customer base for future aircraft offerings.

About Airhart Aeronautics

The founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airhart Aeronautics, Nikita Ermoshkin, was a former engineer at SpaceX before finding an interest in general aviation. While Ermoshkin was learning to fly and becoming a pilot, he became interested in the outdated avionics systems that were typically found in trainer aircraft at flight schools. Some of the newer trainer aircraft that he discovered had outdated and difficult to use avionics systems.

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Photo: Airhart Aeronautics

Because of this, Ermoshkin founded Airhart Aeronautics to develop an aircraft that was easy and safe to fly. This would help encourage more aviation enthusiasts to become pilots and find their way into aircraft. Due to his background in electrical engineering and knowledge of avionics systems, Ermoshkin felt that he could greatly improve existing avionics systems in trainer aircraft.

In talks with Simple Flying earlier this summer, Ermoshkin spoke about how the Airhart Sling and Airhart Aeronautics overall can change the general aviation industry. He stated,

“The company’s long-term outlook is promising, with plans to increase the size of the general aviation market and make flying a viable alternative to driving for many people by decreasing the cost of owning and operating an airplane.”

The Airhart Aeronautics team is composed of several experienced aviation engineers. Airhart Aeronautics and its team have a clear vision that includes improving the accessibility of aviation in general. The company has begun raising funds to support the next phase of engineering and development.

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