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Entrepeneurship Start-up Grants 2025 : Kathan presents Lightweight eSTOL Aircraft
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Read the testimonial of Kathan Bhavsar, Entrepreneurship Start-up Grant laureat with Mohsin KHAN and Javed PATAN for their Lightweight eSTOL Aircraft project: an Hybrid-Electric Short Take-Off and Landing aircraft to deliver heavy payloads over mid-range distances, with the ability to land in areas with minimal infrastructure.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Kathan Bahvsar, i’m doing my second year of Master Aerospace Engineering at supaero Specializing in Systems Engineering and Aircraft Design and Operations . I have 2 other collegues who are working with me on this project : one is Mohsin KHAN who is also a 2nd year master student, specializing in Embedded Systems, Javed PATAN who’s also a student in the 2nd year of the master, and he is specializing in Systems and Control and Aircraft Design and Operations.
At the moment, all of us are going to be doing our internship in our following fields to validate our master’s thesis, and that’s the introduction about us.
All three of us have prior experience with aircraft modeling, and radio-controlled aircraft design and UAVs beforehand and that’s how our passions align. Because of this experience, we have a lot of motivation of seeing aviation through a different lens.
Can you tell us about your project?
Our project is driven by the belief that aviation has a larger role to play, not just in moving people, but in transforming how we move goods, save lives, and build a sustainable future. We’re developing a Hybrid-Electric Short Take-Off and Landing aircraft that uses a novel lift producing mechanism with a tandem wing architecture to deliver heavy payloads over mid-range distances, with the ability to land in areas with minimal infrastructure.
Originaly, It was an extracurricular project. This idea was born out of observing the inefficiencies and environmental costs in current logistics. Instead of waiting for infrastructure to catch up, we decided to design an aircraft that adapts to what’s already available, involving rural roads, small warehouses, hard-to-reach zones. From humanitarian missions and cargo to military logistics, we aim to create an aircraft that doesn’t just fly, but solves real-world problems.
How did you feel when you learned that you had been selected as one of the winners of the Entrepreneurship Start-up Grants 2025?
I speak on behalf of the three of us when I say that I was certainly overwhelmed and verry verry happy to receive that news ! Knowing that it was definitely a competitive price, but it was more than anything that we currently have a dream of making much more than a prototype or a project and taking it to a larger scale. So we were happy that someone else, like the people of the jury, of the Foundation, also believes in that project as much as we do. For sure, we spoke to each other, we called each other verry quickly, as soon as I got the news, and we were happy, because the amount is quite significant for us, to actually grow and become much bigger. It was like a whisper to us to say that it definitively is just the beginning. It really felt like a push for our dream.
It validated not just the design, but the dream behind it. It’s one of those moments where you pause, smile, and whisper to yourself that this is just the beginning.
What are the next steps for your project?
The next steps are both technical and strategic. Since we started this as an extracurricular project, we are currently finishing the prototype of that entire aircraft. We are building a smaller version of the actual aircraft to validate our technical systems on board and technical design of the aircraft. But we are also focusing on the business end of things, looking at it from the viability, the market. We are talking to people in the market who could possibly see this as a solution towards their logistics needs, humanitarian needs or military needs. We are also looking at certifications. The good thing is we are three in this, so we can distribute the work accordingly between us. I think that is an advantage because it also keeps the motivation and the momentum going between the three of us, and we can focus on the business and technical aspects. We wish to have a first flight of the aircraft by July as well and validate our technology, so that would be a massive boost for us as well in validating what we are doing.
Any final words?
Well for the donors, I would like to say that they didn’t just fund a project, they believed in a future. In a world that often rewards safe bets, your support empowers students like me to dream and make them a reality, to challenge the norm, go out of our comfort zone, and to take the first steps toward something truly transformative. When the aircraft takes flight because of your support, it won’t be just the aircraft, but our dreams as well that would take flight alongside it. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.