CHENNAI: The city-based deep-tech startup The ePlane Company announced on Thursday the opening of a testing facility for the electric air taxi at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus in Thaiyur, which houses design, prototyping, integration, and subsystem testing teams in a single location.
The country’s first integrated plant on 60,000 sq ft area, dedicated to the serial production of electric aircraft serves as the engineering hub for the passenger, relief, and cargo eVTOLs (electric Vertical take-off and landing), the company said.
The site includes composite fabrication, electric powertrain assembly, avionics testing, and a dedicated ground test vehicle facility to support subsystem validation and full-scale development.
It is developing India’s first electric air taxi e200X and setting up the facility will accelerate its full-scale e200X prototype production, The ePlane Company said.
“This facility is the engine of our commercial future. 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,” said Satya Chakravarthy, founder and technical lead of The ePlane Company.
The prototyping facility will support key development milestones, including tethered hover testing, as the company progresses toward type certification, it added.