Urban Air Mobility: Mumbai to get ‘Make in India’ air taxi by 2025

Mumbai (Urban Transport News): It is good news for the Mumbaikers that they will start flying with the air taxi in Mumbai from the year 2025. Navi Mumbai based VTOL Aviation Private Limited in collaboration with technology experts at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur is working quietly to develop air taxis that may be a game-changer for India in the global aviation market.

Earlier, Uber had announced that it will launch the first Aerial ride-sharing service, Uber Elevate in Mumbai. Under the flying taxi project, Uber may well have tied up with five global aerospace giants, Embraer, Pipistrel Aircraft, Karem, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Science and Bell to produce the flying taxi before the launch scheduled in 2023.

The VTOL Aviation Pvt. Ltd., started by logistics entrepreneur Kalyan Chowdhury, in his mid-40s, is indigenously developing battery-operated air taxis that may be commercialized and deployed into service by 2025. Under this plan, the company is developing two and four-seater, battery-operated small air taxies that can take off and land anywhere. These air taxies will have both civilian and defense applications and can be operated by pilots or be fully-automatic unmanned aerial vehicles to ferry passengers and cargo.

Technocrats from IIT, Kanpur are helping the company to develop air taxis, based on vertical take-off and landing technology at their university campus. The team of IIT, Kanpur has successfully completed the drone testing, the first stage, with a payload capacity of up to 25 kg. A team of experts is developing autopilot facility in Hyderabad.

The company has planned to invest ₹200 crore in the initial phase with a manufacturing facility at Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. According to the company, it has already invested about Rs.15 crores in this ambitious air taxi project.

“We are building the air taxi in three configurations. They will be fully electric and have hybrid propulsion systems. This technology enables aircraft to take off and land almost anywhere: land, water, snow, helipads, and rooftops,” said Professor Ajoy Kumar Ghosh, Head of Aerospace Engineering and Flight Lab, IIT Kanpur. Prof. Ajoy Kumar Ghosh is heading this air taxi project.

“We are convinced that the products can be delivered and are making sincere efforts towards it. Initially, 30 IIT students are working on this project and as it progresses, more will join,” Professor Ghosh said.

He further said that a drone with a payload capacity of up to 100 kg can be possible by 2020 while the air taxi will be a reality by 2025 because it would take two years for testing and certification, without which it cannot be airborne.

According to sources, scaled down prototypes have been tested and the designs for VTOL Air Taxis and VTOL UAVs, have been reviewed by people such as Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, former Secretary of Defence R&D and also a member of NITI Aayog, Professor T.K. Ghoshal from Jadavpur University and senior scientists from various research laboratories.

“The primary emphasis has been on safety features including a robust battery management system. The vision, under which VTOL Aviation India was incorporated, was to leverage advanced breakthrough innovations and developments in the field of aviation,” said Kalyan Chowdhury, Founder and Managing Director of VTOL Aviation Pvt Ltd.

“The objective behind setting up this company was to reshape the future of flight with the ultimate breakthrough in the aviation sector,” he said.

“The speed range of model-1 of the VTOL UAV & VTOL air taxi would be in the range of 100-250 km an hour. Model-2 would have an even higher speed range and endurance,” he added.

---

Source: Urban Transport News

Image Courtesy: Transportmag

---