Before he founded Airhart Aeronautics Inc. in 2022, Nikita Ermoshkin was already building autonomous aircrafts and flying across the Golden State.

A Cornell graduate in electrical and computer engineering and a former avionics engineer at Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Ermoshkin got his pilot’s license in 2020, fueling a “lifelong love of aviation.” Flying gave the young entrepreneur a “very exciting” level of freedom. In less than two hours, a plane can traverse the approximately 380 miles between his home in Los Angeles and San Francisco, fast enough for him to casually visit his friends, while a car usually takes six.

“Throughout the process of learning, I started to really see how inaccessible aviation was to the average person,” Ermoshkin said. “But at the same time, I saw what benefits you get from being able to fly a plane.”

The convenience went largely unnoticed to the general public. Despite the fact that 300 million Americans live within 10 miles of a local airport, according to 2024 data from the
General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the Federal Aviation Administration found that less than 0.3% of Americans held active airman certificates last year. Safety and price are major issues, he noted. Though statistically safer than a car ride, many see aircraft accidents as more disastrous.

“I wanted to make aviation more accessible. I want to make it safer. I want to make airplanes easier to fly, and I want it to be a thing that people have much more of a public desire to do,” Ermoshkin said. “And ultimately make flying like driving a car.”

And thus Airhart, an avionics systems company focusing on aviation safety and ease, was born. Last month, it opened its first design and innovation center in Long Beach, welcoming the first round of visitors to an upcoming series of hangar tours. The market rollout of its prototype, developed in collaboration with South Africa-based Sling Aircraft, is slated for later this year.

Airhart raised $4.56 million in venture capital last October and has flown the prototype across the country since its first public reveal in 2024 at Santa Monica Municipal Airport. It can accommodate four passengers, including the pilot, and will burn only 7.4 gallons of fuel per hour. That’s low compared to similar four-seaters in the market, such as Textron Aviation Inc.’s Cessna 172, which burns about 9.9 gallons per hour at 75% power on average, according to a Leopard Aviation report.

‘Electronization of the cockpit’

Airhart’s avionics system works like a responsible co-pilot built in a video game-esque system. The dual-touch displays show the various measurements of flight, a push-pull bar controls the speed, while a joystick steers the direction. It takes care of a multitude of automatable tasks so that the human pilot can focus on what’s important, and what a machine cannot easily do – like risk management and situational awareness.

“We implement a lot of logically based decisions into how this airplane will operate, automations and other ways of basically reducing the total chaos on that system,” said Nate Thuli, Airhart president. “To really reduce the burden of this plane operating within that landscape.”

By adopting an approach that combines human presence with automation, Airhart is tapping into an ongoing trend in the aviation industry. Older models have various dials in the cockpit, measuring different aspects of the flight, from airspeed and altitude to fuel and engine performance. That is no longer the popular choice.

“A lot of that is now electronic, which means that it’s attached differently to the items on the aircraft that provide the input,” said Edward Story, co-founder of Santa Monica-based Eco-Aviation Foundation International. “There is a lot of activity in … I would call it ‘the electronization of the cockpit.’”

While large commercial aircrafts have largely been automated since the 1970s, Airhart is taking the technology to small personal planes.

“The technology and the training and the pathways to making commercial airline travel as safe as it is do not trickle into small aviation as well,” Thuli said. “Safety is a big detriment.”

By focusing on assisted safety, Airhart joins a slew of companies across the globe that seek to effectively foolproof private aviation. Cirrus Aircraft, Piper Aircraft and Garmin Avionics, for instance, have developed technologies from plane-sized parachutes to autonomous emergency landing systems. Other companies focus on developing artificial intelligence for prediction and route optimization, such as Honeywell International Inc.

Indian research company Fortune Business Insights reported a global avionics market size of $108.2 billion in 2024, projecting a growth to $200.9 billion by 2034. North America, specifically, had a market share of 37.2% in 2025.

Fueling the flight

Current geopolitical tension has put a dent in the aviation market, on the other hand. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz since early March suspended oil supply, and the price of jet fuel has since been skyrocketing. Airlines for America data shows a 95% increase in jet fuel prices from before the war began, rising from $2.50 per gallon on Feb. 27 to $4.88 on April 2. That means a barrel now costs just over $200.

“The direct effect short term, in the next couple of months, probably very little,” Story said. “But the effect in terms of long-term viability of (Airhart) will be a function, in part … on how robust and healthy the small plane manufacturing and operations business is.”

Private aviation is not a cheap hobby. Toronto-based private jet ​​charter broker Jettly reported that the annual expenses to maintain a private jet can range from $500,000 to over $1 million, depending on its size, age and usage frequency. A private pilot’s license can easily cost upwards of $15,000 in Los Angeles. Fuel costs are a major part of the overall price tag, according to Jettly.

Already focusing on green energy and tackling affordability issues with a price range under $100,000, Airhart said it would explore alternative propulsion methods and electronization as aviation technologies develop alongside its avionics system, reducing its reliance on the frequently volatile supply of fossil fuels.

“In the future, we’re hoping to start reducing our reliance on gasoline more and more, such that things like (the conflicts in the Middle East) don’t have such a strong effect,” Ermoshkin said. 

Infrastructural challenges

Besides a raging fuel crisis, Story pointed out that Airhart is also facing one of the most complex airspaces in the world. Los Angeles International Airport has been named earlier this month as one of the most stressful airports in the country, KTLA 5 reported, while aircrafts of all sizes zoom in and out of the 15 airports in L.A. County every day. A helicopter nearly collided with a landing plane last month at Hollywood Burbank Airport, already flagged as a high-risk area by the National Transportation Safety Board. Recent disturbance in the Transportation Security Administration, including massive staffing shortages caused by a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, has also shown the strained infrastructure surrounding air travel.

However, Airhart is confident that its planes will alleviate the pressure on local airports, even when it rolls out into the mass market.

“Anytime you introduce smart automations and planes that are allowing pilots to operate efficiently, you reduce the strain. Obviously then there’s more strain by having more planes in the air, but as long as those planes are operating in an efficient and a logical way, that helps,” Thuli said. “And there is technology going into more and more adoption that is allowing air traffic control to communicate to aircraft more directly and reduce the system as well, and we’re going to be plugged in and playing with it, integrating with that system completely.”

Looking ahead, Airhart is optimistic about attracting customers. Pre-orders are already in place, and the company is looking to attend the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in July with its prototype. Last year, the air show drew about 704,000 attendees.

“When you look at now the total addressable market for that, how many people road trip? How many people drive to different destinations that are not one major airport hub to another major airport hub?” said Thuli. “There’s a very large untapped market.”