ePlane unveils India’s first full-scale eVTOL prototype

e200X aircraft | Photo credit: Special arrangement

Chennai-based ePlane Company has completed assembly of its e200X full-scale electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, integrating the aircraft’s core subsystems into a single design. The completed prototype, designated PT-01, moves the e200X from design and simulation to the physical testing phase that precedes flight. The aircraft is designed as a single airframe serving three markets: passenger air taxi, urban cargo carrier and air ambulance.

Satya Chakravarthy, founder of The ePlane Company, said: “This announcement is about the unveiling of our first full-scale working prototype, which we have been ground testing for the past few months as just an airframe, but we have reached the point of deploying the vertical and forward thrusters as a full aircraft for further ground testing with them, followed by flight tests over the next few months and full-scale ground testing in India.” This is the first step towards two more prototypes that should come out later this year/early next year to undergo flight testing for certification, he added.

The company said the completed full-scale airframe is a critical stage in any aerospace program because it determines what a simulation cannot. It verifies that the design can be manufactured at full scale, that the tooling and supply chain to create it are in place and working, and that the subsystems physically integrate into a single structure. It is the stage that separates the design of the aircraft from the ability to test it.

The e200X will now enter ground testing, in which the structure and on-board systems are subjected to aerodynamic and mechanical loading of specialized equipment in the ePlane facility, followed by flight testing and the pursuit of type certification. According to the company, the development of a full-fledged eVTOL is among the most difficult challenges in aviation today, and only a small number of programs worldwide have taken the design to a full-scale, full-scale aircraft. With the e200X, ePlane is among them.

The e200X was designed and assembled at ePlane’s own facilities, with its major systems, propellers, airframe structure, landing gear and batteries developed in-house rather than being imported as ready-made assemblies. In a category where many developers rely on a global supply chain, this vertical integration gives ePlane unusual control over performance, cost and iteration speed.

In May 2023, the company received Design Organization Approval (DOA) from DGCA – the first private company to get it in India. “Furthermore, we applied for type certification of the propeller and the eVTOL aircraft itself, both of which were accepted – the only private company to have TC applications accepted (only a company, public or private, to have a propeller TC application accepted),” Mr Chakravarthy said. He added: “We expect to get the TC propellers by the end of this year (probably the only company to get it in this part of the world) and the TC planes by the end of next year or maybe a few months later. So we’ve been progressing all along.”

Asked about the challenges of vertiports and charging infrastructure in India, Mr Chakravarthy said: “We have the advantage of being the most compact eVTOL in the world, so we can start using existing heliports in and around the city as vertiports before new vertiports are developed. The charging infrastructure we need only for long distances is the same as for electric buses. It puts existing chargers on existing heliports.”

Published – 25 Jun 2026 01:48 IST