Sylla 1.0, India Heaviest Electric Aircraft, Lifts Off After Less Than a Year of Development

Sarla Aviation just finished a full round of flight tests with its Sylla 1.0. The 700-kilogram machine with a 7.5-meter wingspan became the heaviest electric aircraft ever to take off vertically in India. Engineers put it through more than 500 tests and over 18 hours of flight time during a six-month campaign in southern India.

Sylla 1.0, built as a half-scale tech demo, is essentially a shrunken version of what the business envisions for the full-size passenger aircraft. It has a novel dispersed propulsion system, with electric motors sticking out along the wing. These are fueled by a 400-volt grid that keeps everything running smoothly. This is critical because the entire structure just lifts off vertically and hovers steadily in the air, with no runway necessary.

The goal of the test phase was to get all of the individual components to communicate with one another. For example, electric propulsion, battery systems, flight control software, the aircraft itself, and the landing gear were all tested to see how well they operate together in practice. First up, get off the ground and hover. Not that difficult, it turned out… Sylla 1.0 just repeated this section several times, obtaining a wealth of relevant flight data along the way.

The entire project moved at quick pace to say the least, with this group going from the start of developing Sylla 1.0 to actual flying in just under a year, which isn’t bad considering the project’s complexity. To top it all off, the project only cost them around 13 million dollars. When compared to some of the major global eVTOL projects now in development, the difference is clear.

Sarla Aviation opened its doors in Bengaluru in 2023 and now employs a team of engineers, many of which had previously worked for Lilium, Volocopter, Wisk, Beta, and Joby Aviation. They pulled all of that international know-how back together with some quick execution to get the place off the ground. Sarla Aviation is named after Sarla Thukral, India’s first woman pilot in the 1930s.

Sylla 2.0, on the other hand, will have to figure out how to fly forward rather than just hovering. We all know how important this is, since it dictates how efficiently these birds will be able to transport passengers or cargo from A to B. They’ve already started collecting important data from Sylla 1.0 and are incorporating it into the next level of testing.

Of course, the long-term goal is to reach Shunya at full capacity. This is the real deal: an aircraft capable of carrying a pilot and six passengers, or four in a more spacious configuration, as well as cargo variants capable of carrying around 680 kg. Oh, and they’re also looking into hybrid power with some sustainable aviation fuel, which should help increase the range to about 800 kilometers. They plan to reach a top speed of roughly 250 km/h using seven ‘propulsion units’ and two batches of separate batteries.

Sarla sees these aircraft fitting in similarly to how ride-hailing apps are used today, as a way to travel from A to B in the air. Early routes can link big cities, such as Bengaluru to Mumbai or Delhi to Pune, or just shuttle passengers between airports and city centers. The real goal, however, is to see what they can do to help India’s push for cleaner transportation while simultaneously increasing their own digital industry.
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