ePlane Plans Air Ambulance Launch As It Opens eVTOL Facility At IIT Madras

India-based aerospace startup The ePlane Company said its electric air taxi prototype is designed with an 8 metre by 10 metre footprint, which it describes as one of the most compact designs for urban air mobility aircraft. The company says the design is intended to help facilitate operations in densely populated cities where space constraints usually limit the use of larger aircrafts.

The startup plans to initially deploy its aircraft for air ambulance services, to reduce emergency medical transport time in certain cases. According to the company, this service can shorten emergency transport durations by several times compared with ground travel in congested urban spaces.

These plans come as the startup inaugurated a 60,000 sq. ft. integrated prototyping and testing facility at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus in Thaiyur, Chennai, which it said will support the development and testing of its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

The facility was inaugurated by Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras recently. It is intended to bring together aircraft design, prototyping, subsystem integration and testing activities in one location as the company advances its aircraft development programme.

The company is developing the e200X, an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft designed for short-distance urban mobility. The new site will support development activities including subsystem validation, integration and ground testing as the company moves toward regulatory certification.

According to the company, the facility includes infrastructure for composite fabrication, electric powertrain assembly, avionics testing and a Ground Test Vehicle (GTV) programme, which will be used for full-scale testing and validation of aircraft systems.

The ePlane Company said it is working with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as part of the certification process for the aircraft, including the development of testing and regulatory frameworks for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft in India.

“This facility is the engine of our commercial future,” said Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, founder and technical lead of The ePlane Company. He said the facility would allow the company to scale development from prototype testing toward eventual production and deployment.

The facility is located at the 163-acre IIT Madras Discovery Campus, which has been developed as a research and innovation hub for deep-tech startups and industry collaboration.

The ePlane Company, incubated at IIT Madras, is among a number of startups globally working on applications including electric aircraft designed for urban mobility, disaster relief and cargo transport.