Sarla Aviation Receives Design Organization Approval from DGCA
Bengaluru-based electric air taxi company Sarla Aviation announced that it has obtained design organisation approval (DOA) from the aviation safety authority, enabling the platform to move towards full commercial production.
Sarla Aviation stated that the DOA was presented to them by Union Minister for Civil Aviation K Rammohan Naidu during the inauguration ceremony of the company's new headquarters in Bengaluru on August 8, with Karnataka cabinet minister Rizwan Arshad and others present.
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Additionally, the company announced establishing partnerships with Manipal Hospitals, Aeromed Air Ambulance, Prestige Group, Jio-bp, Jeppesen Foreflight, Hexel Composites, and Tata Elxsi.
Established in October 2023 by Adrian Schmidt, Rakesh Gaonkar, and Shivam Chauhan, and supported by Accel and angel investors such as Flipkart Co-Founder Binny Bansal and Zerodha Co-Founder Nikhil Kamath, the company recently finished a flight-test program for Sylla, its half-scale electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology prototype.
The Design Organisation Approval is the DGCA's official acknowledgment, according to CAR 21 Subpart J, that an organization possesses the necessary design capabilities, procedures, and independent verification systems to create aircraft, systems, and components that meet certified standards.
With the DOA established, Sarla Aviation is now eligible to advance its designs for type certification with the DGCA, marking an important milestone for domestic aerospace design capabilities.
"...We have a full-scale Indian eVTOL here, one that Indian engineers designed, Indian hands built, and which the Indian skies will proudly carry," Naidu says.
"We have to ensure this is not only for a certain class of people, a certain segment, or just the urban metropolitan areas. We have to ensure these machines fly everywhere in the country," he says.
"At this speed, I believe that within two years we are going to see this (electric air taxi) ecosystem flourish in the country," he says.
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Sarla Aviation's new headquarters consolidates its design, engineering, testing, and commercial teams in Bengaluru, housing a full-scale prototype of Shunya, India's first domestic eVTOL in its category, the company announced.
Sarla Aviation also stated that its demonstrator program has finished more than 500 flight tests and 18 hours of flight testing, while visitors explored 12 stations on the engineering floor, ranging from local motors and 800-volt powertrain designs to the flight simulator where future pilots will receive training.
"India deserves an aerospace company that builds fully indigenous systems to transport people -- something the country has never had. And with electric propulsion, we can finally indigenise the entire supply chain, the manufacturing and the IP ownership, right here in India," said Schmidt.
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Rakesh Gaonkar, Co-Founder & CTO, Sarla Aviation, says, "Every 18 months, we deliver a new prototype. The next one arrives in January 2027 and will carry out our transition flight."