It’s a common sight to see small size drones with a carrying capacity of 5 to 10 kg in the sky spraying pesticides, or involved in surveillance of critical infrastructure or delivering drugs in to remote areas. But, the IIT Madras-incubated ePlane is trying to disrupt the sector with its eVTOLs (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing) — an electric drone that can carry both cargo and passengers. The 3X3 m sized muti-copter drone can carry 35 to 50 kg of cargo, travel at 400 ft and up to 50 km.
ePlane, which got a funding of $5-million for the project, is building India’s first and the world’s most compact flying electric taxi with a vision to make flying ubiquitous, says Satyanarayanan R Chakravarthy, Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT-Madras, and Founder Director of ePlane.
IIT Madras-incubated ePlane could disrupt the drone sector
If a car takes an hour to reach a destination, or a helicopter 27 minutes, eVTOL will take just 14 minutes, claims the ePlane team.
eVTOL will serve short haul mobility and urban mobility where there is a traffic congestion problem, says Prof Satyanarayanan, adding that electric aviation will disrupt the aviation sector in the foreseeable future.
From India, for the world
“What is good for India is good for the world. India should do it ahead of others. The country has UPI; the Aadhar stack and EVMs, then why not electric aviation,” he asks.
The five-year-old deep-tech start-up has developed a subscale prototype which it demonstrated last year. It is now working on a commercial version. “We are on the verge of flying that in the next few weeks, and then we will commercialise it. The subscale version is not meant for passenger travel but for cargo. We will tap the logistics players to adopt it. We have to go through a certification process for that as well,” he says.
“We are working on the passenger version, getting into the detailed design phase now. We will get into prototyping later this year. By early next year, we should have the first passenger prototype,” says Prof Satyanarayanan.
The company has built autonomous flight paths for collision avoidance. It will also set up autonomous Air Traffic Control with manual override for safe landing at various locations, he noted.
The subscale prototype will be governed by the drone rules. Although it can go at high altitudes of around 5,000 ft, it can be flown under 400 ft as well. There may not be much hindrance in India as most of the buildings are 50 m to 100 m tall, he explained.
The 50 kg payload could be the mid-mile segment for clients like logistics players and parcel delivering companies. “We are not going to replace all of the cargo movement. We feel that precious cargo, time critical cargo, medical supplies and organs between hospitals are a few examples where we can come in,” he said.
Spreading wings
Drone is a competitive space with different players deploying drones of different sizes and varieties. However, eVTOL flies with wings to cover longer distances. The key is to test the commercial prototype. “We are a few weeks away from its flight test of at least 100 hours. Then we will go through the certification process. We are a few months away from commercialisation,” he added.