The ePlane Company Launches India’s First Integrated eVTOL Prototyping Facility at IIT Madras

The ePlane Company, a pioneer in electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology in India, has inaugurated a state-of-the-art prototyping and testing facility at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus in Thaiyur.

The marks a crucial shift from initial design concepts and subscale prototypes to flight-ready hardware and certification-grade full-scale prototyping, the official statement notes.

Nation’s First Integrated Plant for Electric Craft Production

Spanning 60,000 sqft, the company claims that the facility is the nation’s first integrated plant dedicated to serial production of electric aircraft, marking a milestone in India’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) sector.

The facility was officially inaugurated by Professor V Kamakoti, Padma Shri recipient and Director of IIT Madras. His vision for the 163-acre Discovery Campus has helped in providing high-tech infrastructure for deep-tech ventures to scale.

“This facility is the engine of our commercial future,” said Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder and Technical Lead of The ePlane Company.

Chakravarthy added, “With the support of IIT Madras, we have built a space where we can fulfil our vision of making flying as common and affordable as taking a taxi. This isn’t just about moving people; it’s about adding another layer of transport to the future of human mobility.”

Hub for Industrial-Scale Aerospace

The facility will support critical development milestones, including tethered hover testing, as the company advances toward Type Certification. It brings together design, prototyping, integration, and subsystem testing teams under one roof, serving as the engineering hub for passenger, relief, and cargo eVTOLs.

Key capabilities include:

• Composite fabrication and electric powertrain assembly

• Avionics testing

• A dedicated Ground Test Vehicle (GTV) facility for subsystem validation and full-scale development

Engineering for the Indian Context, Ready for the World

The company’s e200X is designed for densely populated urban environments. With an 8m x 10m footprint - the most compact globally - it enables seamless rooftop-to-rooftop operations, unlike global competitors that require massive landing pads.

This design makes the e200X particularly suited to India’s congested cities while maintaining international operational standards, the official statement noted.

The prototyping facility represents a critical step for India’s deep-tech hardware ecosystem. Moving beyond design approvals, it allows for the physical integration and validation of complex aerospace systems. 

The facility also provides a dedicated space for building energy-efficient, zero emission mobility solutions specifically designed for dense urban areas.

The IIT Madras Factor: A Blueprint for Innovation

The success of The ePlane Company is closely tied to the IIT Madras Incubation Cell, which provides:

• Infrastructure: Access to the Discovery Campus, enabling startups to scale beyond the constraints of traditional urban labs

• Human Capital: A steady pipeline of specialised engineering talent in electric propulsion and composite materials

• Validation: Academic rigour that ensures safety and physics are validated before flight

About The ePlane Company

Incubated at IIT Madras, The ePlane Company is India’s deep-tech aerospace firm building the e200X, the nation’s first compact electric air taxi. The company is the first private Indian entity to receive Design Organisation Approval (DOA) and Type Certification (TC) application acceptance from the DGCA.

The ePlane Company has also forged global partnerships - including NVIDIA, AWS, Dassault, and CADFEM-Ansys - for advanced simulation, cloud infrastructure, avionics, and edge computing capabilities. Its first commercial application focuses on air ambulances, aiming to reduce critical medical transport times across India by up to seven times.

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a global leader in engineering education. Through its Discovery Campus and Incubation Cell, IIT Madras supports deep-tech startups and contributes to India’s mission toward “Viksit Bharat 2047.”