Air Mobility: Rerouting From Roads To Skies

A short commute in Bengaluru can stretch into an hour-long ordeal. Airport transfers in Mumbai or Delhi routinely test the patience of even the most seasoned traveller. These inefficiencies are costly, affecting productivity and ultimately creating an invisible friction in the economy.

Now imagine bypassing it altogether and lifting off vertically from a compact rooftop hub and landing minutes later near your destination. What once seemed like science fiction is rapidly becoming reality as India enters the global race to develop electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

“I want to build a 100-year-old company that could transport people through the air locally. Flying shouldn’t be restricted. It should be for everybody,” said Satya Chakravarthy, Founder and Technical Lead, The ePlane Company. That ambition was more than a statement. It was a generational vision. Drawn by the audacity of the idea, Vishnu Ramakrishnan chose to step away from a successful career in data science and became a part of the founding team. Since then, it has been a journey that has soared steadily.

He joined the company in 2022, when the team was barely 15 people, all working out of a single room. There was no large-scale infrastructure or a finished product, but only a shared belief that urban air mobility could fundamentally change how India moves.

Unlike conventional aerospace programmes, which often move directly toward full-scale prototypes, The ePlane Company adopted a deliberately incremental approach. “We started very small by building an aircraft with a wingspan of about 1.7 metres. It was to prove to ourselves that our idea could take off from just being on paper,” explains Vishnu. This prototype gave the team the belief that they could design, manufacture, integrate and control various systems efficiently.

To scale efficiently, the team initially studied each subsystem individually. Aerodynamic teams focused on shaping the aircraft for optimum airflow; structural engineers worked within strict weight budgets to ensure integrity without excess mass. Propulsion specialists examined the interplay between motors and propellers, while energy teams determined the battery configurations necessary to support the desired range. Parallel to all this, control systems were developed to manage one of the most complex aspects of eVTOL flight: the transition from vertical take-off to forward motion.

This transition phase represents the heart of the engineering challenge. Conventional aircraft are either rotorcraft, like helicopters, which have vertical lift, or fixed-wing aircraft, which are efficient in cruise but require runways. The ePlane Company has combined both these capabilities. The moment when the aircraft shifts from hovering to cruising is where complexity begins. “This transition is very critical as most failures happen globally,” points out Vishnu. The physics governing lift and thrust change dramatically. Historically, such hybrid systems were largely confined to military platforms, making access to data restrained. To understand these principles, simulation and iterative testing played a major role. This approach has enabled the company to move faster while maintaining high levels of confidence in its designs. In aerospace, failure can be highly expensive. The ability to simulate reality with precision offers a significant advantage. It reduces risk, shortens development cycles and ultimately lowers costs.  “The closer your simulations are to reality, innovation becomes economical and faster,” highlights Vishnu.

From the initial prototype, the company progressed to a larger subscale aircraft and eventually to the design of its flagship platform. Each stage was informed by data, simulation and rigorous subsystem testing.

If simulation defines efficiency, safety defines viability. Aviation is governed by some of the most stringent standards, and eVTOLs are no exception. Every critical component must demonstrate an extraordinarily low probability of failure, often as low as one in a billion operational cycles. Meeting such standards requires an all new design philosophy. “We don’t design assuming everything will work perfectly. We assume something will fail and then ensure that the system can still operate safely,” says Vishnu. The ePlane Company incorporates multiple layers of redundancy. Motors are built with dual windings so that if one fails, the other can take over. Speed controllers are duplicated, eliminating single points of failure. Instead of relying on four rotors, the design uses six, ensuring that the aircraft can remain stable even if one becomes inoperative. Separate propulsion systems are used for vertical lift and forward motion, reducing dependence on any single mechanism. In extreme scenarios, the aircraft can glide like a conventional plane, deploy a parachute, or rely on structures designed to absorb impact energy and protect passengers.  “In total, there are seven layers of redundancy. The idea is simple at no point should a single failure lead to a catastrophic outcome,” highlights Vishnu.

Such layered safety systems differ from traditional ones that focus solely on preventing failure. The emphasis now is on managing failure in a controlled and predictable manner. This philosophy not only enhances safety but also builds confidence among regulators and passengers. Design choices are also influenced by this balancing of efficiency and reliability. Globally, some eVTOL players have adopted tilt-rotor systems. In this, rotors physically rotate to enable transition and it creates mechanical complexity, leading to potential failure points. The ePlane Company uses an alternative strategy, the lift-and-cruise architecture. Here, separate sets of rotors handle vertical and horizontal motion, eliminating the need for several moving parts during transition. Although this adds some weight, it significantly simplifies the system. “It is a trade-off, but in urban mobility, reliability matters more,” admits Vishnu.

Another innovation lies in the ability to operate effectively at lower speeds. In western markets, many eVTOL designs aim for speeds approaching 300 kilometres per hour, optimised for longer distances. Indian cities, however, present a different challenge where the distances are short, often just a few kilometres. To achieve this, sufficient lift is necessary at lower speeds with compact wings. Clever aerodynamic design and the vertical rotors address this challenge by enhancing airflow over the wings.

“Building the aircraft is only one part of the challenge. Unlike cars, where roads and rules already exist, here we have to begin from scratch, right from infrastructure to policy,” highlights Vishnu. For eVTOLs to operate, vertiports must be built or adapted from existing helipads. Airspace must be managed to accommodate high-density, low-altitude flights. Regulatory frameworks must evolve to address new operational realities, from autonomous systems to beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations (BVLOSS). To address this, the company has been actively engaging with policymakers, infrastructure developers and potential operators.

India’s approach to regulation also offers a distinct advantage. Rather than waiting for global standards to emerge, authorities have taken a proactive stance by engaging with industry stakeholders. This allows development to create frameworks in parallel with technological development. This collaborative model has already been evident in the drone sector, where policies have evolved rapidly to support innovation while maintaining safety. A key development is the adoption of BVLOS operations, which will allow drones to operate over longer distances without requiring direct visual contact. This shift is expected to unlock significant commercial opportunities, particularly in logistics and surveillance. The same spirit of regulatory innovation is now being applied to urban air mobility, enabling us to craft policies that are both practical and forward-looking. “India is not playing catch-up anymore. We are building alongside the world,” highlights Vishnu.

Urban air mobility, powered by electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, promises to add a new dimension to transportation. A market study conducted by Frost & Sullivan estimates nearly 198 million potential air taxi trips per month by 2030, requiring a fleet of approximately 200,000 aircraft. These numbers are reflective of a deeply felt need in cities where time has become the scarcest resource. “When we started in 2019, people asked who needs air taxis in India? Today, the question has changed to, when will they arrive?” smiles Vishnu. The economics of eVTOLs support this shift. A typical airport ride in cities like Bengaluru can take more than an hour and cost over Rs 1500. On the other hand, an air taxi will be priced at around two times the cost but will offer a drastic reduction in travel time to just 10–15 minutes. “For that kind of time saving, it becomes a no-brainer,” highlights Vishnu. Helicopters have traditionally served as the closest equivalent, but eVTOLs offer significant advantages. They are expected to be substantially cheaper with shorter turnaround times between flights, enabling higher utilisation. Over time, as scale increases and costs decline, these services could become accessible to a broader segment of the population.

The ripple effects extend beyond mobility. The rise of drones and eVTOLs is already creating new categories of employment, from drone pilots and embedded systems engineers to aerospace designers and data scientists. More significantly, it is the beginning of reverse brain drain in the aerospace sector. Professor Satya used to teach propulsion and a student asked him, why should we pay attention, as there will be no job opportunities. “That question struck a nerve with the professor. If there are no opportunities in aerospace, then the problem is not the students but the ecosystem. His response was to rebuild the field by creating companies in aerospace and electric mobility with the aim to ensure students could stay, learn and innovate within India,” stresses Vishnu. Companies across the country are now contributing to this emerging ecosystem, creating opportunities that did not exist a decade ago. The result is a virtuous cycle: as more talent enters the field, innovation accelerates, attracting further investment and interest.

Beyond all this, challenges remain in terms of rigorous and time-consuming certification processes and high investment for infrastructure development. Battery technology, while advancing rapidly, must improve to support longer ranges and higher payloads.

Yet, these are characteristic of any transformative technology in its early stages. What sets India apart is the alignment of multiple factors, including technical capability, regulatory support and market demand that will create a growth environment. Global companies like Joby and Archer are advancing rapidly, with plans to launch services in the Middle East and are eyeing India as a major market.

The evolution of urban air mobility in India represents more than a technological milestone; it signals a shift in how mobility itself is conceived. Just as the country leapfrogged from landline telephones to widespread mobile connectivity, it now has the opportunity to bypass incremental improvements in ground transport and adopt a fundamentally new paradigm. Soon, Indian skies will become vibrant transport corridors, carrying people and goods with unprecedented efficiency. When that happens, no longer can we complain about the road traffic for our long-waiting appointments.