Sarla Aviation has announced the completion of the flight-test campaign for Sylla, its half-scale electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology demonstrator.
“Across six months of field testing, Sylla logged more than 500 tests and over 18 hours of flight testing — making the 700 kg-class, 7.5-metre-wingspan aircraft the heaviest electric aircraft ever to take off in India,” said the company in a press release. “Sylla 1.0 is a half-scale technology demonstrator built to validate aircraft-level and system-level integration under real operating conditions. Throughout the programme, Sarla successfully evaluated the interaction between the aircraft’s electric propulsion system, battery architecture, distributed propulsion, flight-control algorithms, airframe and landing gear as a fully integrated aircraft.”
According to the company the Sylla programme established a series of national firsts in electric aviation: first in India to build and fly a 700 kg-class electric aircraft capable of vertical take-off: “first in India to fly a 400-volt electric powertrain architecture; first in India to demonstrate a distributed-propulsion wing system; first in India to complete full-stack ground testing conducted in accordance with airworthiness regulations.”
The company reports it has already begun development of Sylla 2.0, an upgraded technology demonstrator that incorporates the engineering learnings from the current programme. “While Sylla 1.0 focused on validating integrated aircraft systems and controlled hover, Sylla 2.0 will pursue controlled transition between vertical and wing-borne flight—the defining technological milestone required before developing a certifiable passenger eVTOL,” said the company.
For more information
https://www.sarla-aviation.com/news-stories/sylla_flight_test_campaign