Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation has received the Design Organisation Approval from the DGCA, becoming the fastest Indian aerospace startup to receive the certification in Indian aviation history.
Sarla Aviation has received the Design Organisation Approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, granted on August 8, 2026, at the inauguration of the company’s new headquarters in Bengaluru. Presented by Ram Mohan Naidu, Minister of Civil Aviation, the approval is the fastest-ever DOA in Indian aviation history, granted to a company barely three years old. The DOA, issued under CAR 21 Subpart J, formally recognises that an organisation has the design capacity, procedures and independent checking systems to design aircraft, systems and components to certified standards, qualifying Sarla Aviation to take its designs forward for type certification with the DGCA. The inauguration was attended by senior leadership of the Indian Air Force, the Indian Army, representatives of the Government of Karnataka including Cabinet Minister Rizwan Arshad and the leadership of Bengaluru International Airport.
The new headquarters brings Sarla Aviation’s design, engineering, testing and commercial teams under one roof alongside a full-scale prototype of Shunya, described as India’s first indigenous electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft of its class. The company’s demonstrator programme has completed over 500 flight tests and 18 hours of flight testing. Adrian Schmidt, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sarla Aviation, said India deserved an aerospace company that built fully indigenous systems to transport people and that electric propulsion made it possible to indigenise the entire supply chain, manufacturing and intellectual property ownership within India. Rakesh Gaonkar, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, said the next prototype would arrive in January 2027 and carry out a transition flight. Six partnerships were signed at the inauguration, with Manipal Hospitals and Aeromed Air Ambulance, Prestige Group, Jio-bp, Jeppesen ForeFlight, Hexcel Composites and Tata Elxsi, spanning emergency medical transport, vertiport infrastructure, navigation software, composite materials and flight controls.
