India’s air-taxi ambitions take flight as Sarla begins ground tests

BENGALURU: India has entered the global race for flying taxis. Sarla Aviation has begun ground testing its half-scale electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) demonstrator at its Bengaluru facility, marking the most ambitious private aerospace programme yet attempted in the country.

The SYL-X1, with its 7.5-metre wingspan, is India’s largest private eVTOL demonstrator. Built in just nine months and on a shoestring compared with global rivals, it represents a leap from PowerPoint presentations to actual metal, or in this case, composite structures designed for certification from day one.

Unlike academic toys or remote-controlled prototypes, the demonstrator is built to validate real aircraft systems: structural behaviour, propulsion integration and safety architecture at meaningful scale. It forms the bridge to Sarla’s full-scale, 15-metre wingspan air taxi, a six-seater designed to slash commute times across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.

“Our focus has never been on being first, but on building to last,” said Rakesh Gaonkar, co-founder and chief technology officer. “We are building something India can be proud of—a platform that can be certified, produced and safely operated, designed and owned entirely in India.”

The achievement places India alongside a handful of nations developing next-generation vertical flight at industrial scale. Getting here meant more than aircraft design: Sarla had to create a certification-ready flight-test ecosystem, navigate India’s patchy aerospace supply chain and scale from two founders to nearly 70 engineers—all within a single development cycle. The company also delivered a full-scale static aircraft for display at Bharat Mobility and raised $13m in total funding.

Sarla, named after Sarla Thukral, India’s first woman pilot, was founded in 2023 by Gaonkar and Adrian Schmidt, veterans of Lilium, the German eVTOL maker. The team includes alumni from Volocopter, Beta and Joby Aviation. Their bet: that India will not merely adopt advanced air mobility but shape its future.

In an industry littered with vaporware and broken promises, Sarla’s demonstrator is a statement of intent. Whether it can navigate certification, production and sustained operations—the graveyard of countless aerospace dreams—remains to be seen. But for now, India has a horse in the race. And it is already taxiing.