What does it take to reimagine flight for India’s cities — and make it affordable, scalable, and safe? In this episode of The Indian AvGeek, I sit down with Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder, CEO-CTO of The ePlane Company and long-time professor at IIT Madras, to explore how deep-tech innovation ...
What does it take to reimagine flight for India’s cities — and make it affordable, scalable, and safe? In this episode of The Indian AvGeek, I sit down with Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder, CEO-CTO of The ePlane Company and long-time professor at IIT Madras, to explore how deep-tech innovation is reshaping the skies above us.
From his early fascination with aerospace engineering to his bold leap from academia into ventures like ePlane and Agnikul Cosmos, Prof. Chakravarthy shares the sparks that drive him to tackle frontier problems. We dive into his concept of “defrastructure” — the invisible backbone of future mobility — and how it guides his work across aviation, space, and urban transport.
Together, we unpack:
• 🚁 The design philosophy behind ePlane’s compact eVTOLs and the balancing act of range, payload, and cost
• 🛫 The regulatory gauntlet of securing DGCA’s Design Organisation Approval and lessons learned
• 🔬 The breakthrough of “aerodynamic synergy” in the e200X and why 196+ design iterations were worth it
• 🌆 The roadmap to commercial operations, early customer reactions, and how India’s cities might embrace air taxis
• 🌍 India’s place in the global aerospace race — from UAM to rocketry, and even the possibility of a homegrown civilian airliner
• 💡 Insights from global peers like Joby, Archer, and EHang, and what India can adapt for its own skies
• 👩💻 His advice for young engineers and entrepreneurs daring to build at the edge of science and business
Vishal Mehra - @vishal1mehra