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The ePlane Company has inaugurated a state-of-the-art prototyping and testing facility at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus, marking a major step forward for India’s urban air mobility ambitions. Spanning 60,000 sq. ft., the site is the country’s first integrated plant dedicated to the serial production of electric aircraft and full-scale certification-grade prototyping.
The facility was officially inaugurated by V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras. It will serve as a central engineering hub for passenger, cargo, and emergency-response eVTOL aircraft, housing design, prototyping, integration, and subsystem testing teams under one roof.
Designed to support industrial-scale aerospace development, the site features composite fabrication units, electric powertrain assembly, avionics testing systems, and a dedicated Ground Test Vehicle (GTV) facility. It will also enable key development milestones such as tethered hover testing as the company progresses toward aircraft type certification.
The company’s flagship e200X aircraft is engineered for dense urban environments, featuring a compact 8m x 10m footprint that enables rooftop-to-rooftop operations in congested cities. Founder and Technical Lead Satya Chakravarthy said the new facility represents a critical step toward making electric air mobility accessible and commercially viable.
Beyond aircraft development, the facility is expected to play a significant role in advancing India’s deep-tech ecosystem by enabling full-scale validation of complex aerospace systems and supporting the regulatory framework for electric aviation.
The project reflects the broader innovation ecosystem fostered by IIT Madras, which has provided infrastructure, engineering talent, and incubation support to help scale indigenous zero-emission aviation technologies.
