This website uses cookies
More information
The monthly news publication for aviation professionals.

ACE 2026 - September 8th

Related information from the Handbook...

Sarla Aviation Pvt. Ltd.
Aircraft

Sarla Shunya

BAN's World Gazetteer

India
The bimonthly news publication for aviation professionals.

Request your printed copy

Sarla breaks ground on Andhra Pradesh giga campus
The facility, which will produce 1,000 eVTOLs a year, is a major step toward India's self-reliance in advanced aerospace manufacturing.
The site will house India’s largest wind tunnel and a purpose built two kilometre runway.

Sarla Aviation has signed a formal MoU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to develop a 500-acre aerospace giga campus dedicated to the Shunya eVTOL. The MoU was handed over personally by Chief Minister Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Shri Ram Mohan Naidu and Minister for Roads & Buildings Shri B.C. Janardhan Reddy, whose support was described as pivotal to the project.

The campus will become India’s first fully integrated facility for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Once complete, it will have the capacity to manufacture up to 1,000 aircraft a year, making it one of the largest eVTOL hubs in the world.

The site will also feature facilities for flight testing, certification, pilot training, MRO and embedded systems. It will house India’s largest wind tunnel, VTOL testing pads, and a dedicated two-kilometre runway.

“With the world's biggest sky factory, we want to make India a nerve centre for the next era of flight,” says Rakesh Gaonkar, co-founder and CTO of Sarla Aviation. “Our goal is simple; let India design, build, test, fly and operate the world's most advanced eVTOL systems from one integrated campus.”

The ₹1,300 crore investment aligns with the Viksit Bharat 2047 and Swarna Andhra 2047 agendas and aims to make Andhra Pradesh a global hub for aerial mobility.

The facility will feature wind tunnels, VTOL testing pads, training centres and sustainability measures such as water-recycling and green zones.

Other News
 
New Horizon signs up for Mitsubishi partnership
April 16, 2026
MHIRJ will provide specialist engineering services focused on the design and development of flight test instrumentation for the Cavorite X7. This effort is essential to enable critical data collection.
Skyryse advances flight safety with SkyOS autoland
March 21, 2026
Unlike legacy autoland systems that are typically limited to specific aeroplane models, Skyryse positions emergency autoland as a core SkyOS capability for multiple aircraft categories.
Cavorite X7 displays powerful performance characteristics
March 16, 2026
Flying most missions in conventional fixed-wing cruise powered by a traditional turboprop engine, the Cavorite X7 is targeting regional distances up to 280 mph, nearly twice the speed of some helicopters.