Overview
- The ePlane Company said it completed assembly of its full-scale e200X prototype, designated PT-01, on Wednesday and will begin a ground-testing campaign before flight trials.
- The e200X is a single airframe designed to serve three roles—passenger air taxi, urban cargo carrier, and air ambulance—so the same aircraft can be reconfigured for people, goods, or emergency medical transport.
- ePlane built major subsystems at its Chennai facility, including propellers, airframe, landing gear and the battery pack, and the programme has been funded with roughly USD 21 million to date.
- The firm plans to pursue Type Certification from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and has already applied for propeller certification; company statements say propeller approval is expected later this year and the aircraft certification next year or shortly after.
- The milestone positions ePlane within a growing global eVTOL market and could shorten urban emergency response times by using small helipads as vertiports and existing fast-charging infrastructure, the company says.