The ePlane Company (Ubifly Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) has inaugurated India’s largest integrated prototyping and testing facility for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft at the IIT Madras Discovery Campus in Thaiyur. Spread across 60,000 sq. ft., the facility marks a significant step in the country’s urban air mobility sector, advancing from design-stage concepts and subscale prototypes to flight-ready systems and full-scale certification testing.

The facility was inaugurated by V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras and Padma Shri recipient. The 163-acre Discovery Campus is designed to provide advanced infrastructure for deep-tech innovation and industrial-scale research.

Positioned as a strategic engineering hub, the site will support critical development milestones such as tethered hover testing as the company moves towards Type Certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The facility integrates design, prototyping, subsystem testing and system integration teams in one location, supporting the development of passenger, cargo and relief eVTOL aircraft.

The campus houses composite fabrication units, electric powertrain assembly lines, avionics testing systems and a dedicated Ground Test Vehicle facility for subsystem validation and full-scale development. The company’s flagship e200X aircraft is engineered for dense urban environments, featuring an 8m x 10m footprint designed to enable compact rooftop-to-rooftop operations.

Commenting on the launch, Satya Chakravarthy, Founder and Technical Lead, The ePlane Company, said the facility represents a major step towards commercial deployment of urban air mobility solutions and aims to make air transport as accessible as conventional urban mobility.

The facility is also expected to strengthen India’s deep-tech ecosystem by enabling the physical integration and validation of complex aerospace systems while contributing to regulatory frameworks for electric aviation. Supported by IIT Madras’ incubation ecosystem, the initiative highlights the role of academic collaboration, specialised engineering talent and advanced infrastructure in driving indigenous aerospace innovation and sustainable mobility solutions.