{"id":71635,"title":"✈️ Airhart Sling: The first fly-by-wire personal airplane","tagline":"Airhart is making airplanes that anyone can fly. Our advanced flight control systems make flying to Tahoe as easy as driving to the grocery store.","body":"At Airhart, we are building airplanes anyone can fly. We’ve been working on our vehicle for close to a year now and are thrilled to announce we are working with Sling Aircraft in developing our first fully fly-by-wire and easy-to-fly airplane: the **Airhart Sling**!\n\n![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/64085db05268829a421ce823/6462978da8bca97ce08640ac_OUTDOOR%20A%20RED.png)\n\n**Why are we building airplanes?**\n\nCommon small planes today look, feel, and fly the same way a car from the 1960’s looks, feels, and drives because they were designed and built in that same time. Today, many people don’t see themselves being able to drive a 1960’s manual transmission car, much less a plane from the same era.\n\nLearning the motor skills required to fly a plane today like this adds time, costs, and training complexity. Around [70 to 80%](https://download.aopa.org/epilot/2011/AOPA_Research-The_Flight_Training_Experience.pdf) of aspiring pilots drop out before getting their Private Pilot License citing these as reasons.\n\n**What is the Airhart Sling?**\n\nBased on the [Sling TSi](https://slingaircraft.com/aircraft/sling-tsi/), it will possess all the excellent features typical of a TSi:\n\n* capacity for four people (including the pilot)\n* a cruise speed of 148 KTAS,\n* a range of 800 nautical miles\n* only burning 7.4 gallons of fuel per hour.\n\nThe Airhart Sling will feature Airhart’s easy-to-fly controls, creating a safe and user-friendly airplane that anyone can fly.\n\nRead more about the Airhart Sling on our website: \u003chttps://www.airhartaero.com/airhart-sling\u003e\n\n**Asks**\n\n* Interested in getting an Airhart Sling when it is released or know someone who would be? **Reserve your spot** with a deposit: \u003chttps://www.airhartaero.com/reserve-your-spot\u003e\n* Just think airplanes are cool? **Sign up to receive updates** on our blog as we make progress: \u003chttps://www.airhartaero.com/blog\u003e\n* **Share us** with your airplane-loving friends!","slug":"IdP-airhart-sling-the-first-fly-by-wire-personal-airplane","created_at":"2024-01-09T22:13:27.818Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T01:23:24.922Z","total_vote_count":8,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/IdP-airhart-sling-the-first-fly-by-wire-personal-airplane","share_image_url":"//bookface-static.ycombinator.com/assets/ycdc/yc-og-image-c440a0ad1dacfb86eeeb343717479cc54d256614449b4ef719977a0a451f8bc8.png","company":{"id":26880,"name":"Airhart Aeronautics","slug":"airhart-aeronautics","url":"https://www.airhartaero.com/","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6d2c3077b0a260101b4efa34338d48f2bcb7a825.png","batch":"Summer 2022","industry":"Industrials","tags":["Airplanes","Aerospace"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/26880"}}