Tata Elxsi and advanced air mobility company Sarla Aviation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of Shunya, Sarla Aviation’s six-seater plus one pilot electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The partnership is aimed at accelerating the aircraft’s development, testing and certification and supporting its journey towards its first flight.
Under the collaboration, Tata Elxsi will provide engineering support for critical aerospace systems, including avionics, flight-control systems, software integration, testing, verification and validation, as well as certification-related activities. Sarla Aviation will lead the overall design, development and type certification of the Shunya platform.
The partnership will also explore Tata Elxsi’s involvement in sensor-fusion-based navigation software, industrial and structural design, and airworthiness testing. This will bring together Sarla Aviation’s expertise in advanced air mobility with Tata Elxsi’s capabilities in aerospace engineering, software and flight-critical digital engineering.
Shunya has been designed to carry six passengers and one pilot and is planned to have a flight range of more than 300 km. The aircraft combines the ability to take off and land vertically with fixed-wing cruise capability, allowing it to operate without conventional runways while improving propulsion efficiency during cruise operations.
Sarla Aviation is targeting the first flight of Shunya within the next 18 to 24 months, after which certification activities are expected to follow. The timeline places the programme among the emerging advanced air mobility initiatives being developed in India.
The MoU was signed at Sarla Aviation’s newly inaugurated headquarters in Bengaluru, in the presence of Manoj Raghavan, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Elxsi; Adrian Schmidt, Co-Founder and CEO, Sarla Aviation; and Rakesh Gaonkar, Co-Founder and CTO, Sarla Aviation, along with members of the aerospace and engineering teams of both companies.
For Tata Elxsi, the collaboration expands its engineering involvement across aerospace, mobility, electrification and digital technologies into the emerging advanced air mobility segment. The company will contribute its experience in developing connected, software-driven and flight-critical systems to support the Shunya programme.
Adrian Schmidt, Co-Founder and CEO, Sarla Aviation, said Tata Elxsi’s experience in complex aerospace systems would provide capabilities that are critical as the company takes Shunya from concept towards reality. He also highlighted the importance of collaboration in developing a new class of aircraft and building the ecosystem required for advanced air mobility.