India's burgeoning eVTOL industry has seen major advancements, investment, and partnerships taking place over the last few years. The country has just seen an indigenously produced 1,540-lb (700-kg) half-scale demonstrator wrap up its integrated flight testing, inching it closer to the era of air taxis.
Sarla Aviation is the company behind the milestone, which it completed earlier this week. Its Sylla 1.0 demonstrator went from the drawing board to mid-air in under a year and with a budget of less than US$13 million.
The demonstrator has a 24-ft-7-inch (7.5-m) wingspan, a 400-volt electric powertrain architecture. Its successful tests made it the first aircraft to demonstrate a distributed-propulsion wing system – and the first eVTOL of this weight class to achieve vertical take-off – in the country.
This battery of tests saw Sarla put Sylla 1.0's electric propulsion system, battery architecture, distributed propulsion, flight-control algorithms, airframe, and landing gear through their paces. It'll subsequently go through trials to test its ability to transition from hover to sustained wing-borne flight.
That's a huge win for the company, which built the demonstrator at half the scale of its upcoming Shunya aircraft, which it hopes will be the world's most economically viable air taxi. It's helmed by folks from a host of international eVTOL players including Lilium, Volocopter, Wisk, Beta, and Joby Aviation.
Shunya will be able to fly a pilot and either six passengers with a bit of luggage, or four in more luxurious seating. A cargo configuration will allow it to carry up to 1,500 lb (680 kg).
The eVTOL is being designed with seven propulsion units, dual isolated batteries and a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) tank for up to 500 miles (800 km) of hybrid range. Sarla is targeting a top speed of 155 mph (250 km/h), which should make light work of airport-city transfers when it first becomes operational in the coming years.
With that, Sarla is up against global players like Joby, Archer, Vertical Airspace, and SkyDrive, as well as Chinese outfits like eHang and TCab Tech. It also faces competition on its home turf. The ePlane Company claimed last month that its PT-01 was the first full-scale prototype of an eVTOL in India. There are other firms developing deep tech for aviation too, including BluJ Aerospace.
Of course, these companies will have more than just the challenges of building and perfecting their aircraft to deal with before they can get in the air. They'll need to work with local regulatory authorities to get clearance to publicly test their eVTOLs, obtain licenses to operate commercially, and secure landing zones at airports and transport hubs in India's major cities.
Given India's penchant for red tape, that will all likely be even more difficult than it is for companies in the US, China, and the Middle East. Hopefully they'll be able to handle the turbulence.
Source: Sarla Aviation
