Sarla Aviation begins ground testing of half-scale eVTOL demonstrator in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Sarla Aviation commenced ground-testing for its half-scale electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) demonstrator, SYLLA SYL-X1, at its Bengaluru test facility on Monday. With a 7.5-metre wingspan, the SYL-X1 represents the largest and most-advanced private eVTOL demonstrator of its kind currently under development in India, the company said in a statement.

With ground-testing underway, Sarla Aviation’s air taxi programme is entering its core validation phase, moving beyond digital concepts and laboratory-scale experimentation into real aircraft-scale testing.

Accordingly, the current eVTOL demonstrator is a functional sub-scale aircraft, purpose-built to validate structural behaviour, propulsion integration, and system-level safety architecture at meaningful scale. 

Meanwhile, Sarla Aviation also delivered a full-scale static aircraft for national showcase at Bharat Mobility, while raising $13 million in funding to strengthen long-term execution capability.