‘Drone taxi’ prototype built by India’s ePlane Company undertakes test flight, may fly by 2025

A winged-drone that's almost the size of a car(three metres each in length and width), manages to take-off vertically using eight vertical propellers, flies forward for a short duration using a set of four forward propellers and then lands vertically, entirely powered by its batteries. What if there was a pilot sitting onboard and ferrying a single passenger and light cargo in a larger version of the same drone? That's what Chennai-based firm ePlane Company is working on and their latest test flight of a prototype drone has ensured that their 'flying taxi' dream could become a reality by 2025.

Earlier this week, ePlane Company shared a video of their 'e50' prototype drone performing a successful forward flight. "During this test (where the drone was flown using a remote control), we proved that the drone can take-off vertically using its eight vertical propellers and then it gradually moves forward by the efforts of its four forward propellers. We were able to showcase the transition from vertical flight to forward flight, as is intended" Professor Satya Chakravarthy, Founder and CEO of ePlane, explained to WION.

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In simple terms, their drone taxi is meant to take-off like a helicopter, then gradually it will be able to speed up and switch to its forward propellers and fly forward as a conventional aircraft does. When it is time to land, the same process happens in reverse, and it lands back again like a helicopter. This makes their concept plane taxi simpler to operate from very limited space.

Prof Chakravarthy, who is also a faculty at the Department of Aerospace Engineering,IIT Madras,said that the current prototype 'e50' is a scaled-down version of the intended drone taxi 'e200'. He added that the maiden flight test of 'e50' helped the team learn a lot in terms of design, assembly, flight controller behaviour, etc. "The time that we will take to develop 'e200' has been shortened now," he says.

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The firm has extensively flown and tested its smallest prototype 'e6', a 1.7m wingspan drone capable of carrying a payload of 6kgand flying over long distances. This model is meant to be used for surveillance and delivery services. In the coming months, the firm hopes to carry payloads of 50kg on their 'e50' model and perform a 100km flight in an hour, on a single charge. "Our first 'e200' drone taxi prototype will be ready by the end of this year and by 2025 we hope to have the final iteration ready," he told WION. The 'e200' is an electric drone taxi that can carry up to 200kg (a pilot and a passenger) within a range of 200km.

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