“Hopefully it doesn't blow up,” says Deepinder Goyal as his latest venture LAT, prepares for trials of fully-electric aircraft

Recent update on LAT

In a LinkedIn post, Goyal shared that the company’s first uSTOL technology demonstrator: 

• a fully electric, 

• fixed-wing UAV

• that has moved from concept to a near-flight-ready system 

• in just a few months.

According to his update, the aircraft has been built entirely from scratch inside of LAT’s newly set-up flight lab, where every workbench, testing fixture, and tool was developed in-house. 

The goal, he noted, was simply to create an environment where progress toward flight could be made “every single day.”

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Metrics mentioned

The demonstrator is optimized for ultra-short takeoff performance, with an estimated takeoff distance of about 40 meters. 

This has been achieved with a high lift coefficient of around 5, more than twice that of most conventional aircraft. 

The UAV is expected to deliver about an hour of endurance, with the capability to autonomously cover a distance equivalent to Mumbai–Pune.

Ground-roll tests are already complete, and the team is now preparing for the first flight attempt. 

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Trials soon

Deepinder Goyal added that they are “hopefully it doesn’t blow up,” promising to share videos of the attempt regardless of the outcome. 

The emphasis, he suggested, is not just in the achievement but in the learning curve that comes with building complex hardware in compressed timelines.

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About LAT

Beyond this demonstrator, LAT Aerospace has begun parallel research into hybrid-electric propulsion and has started assembling an engineering team dedicated to developing its own gas-turbine engines. Goyal acknowledged that these ambitions represent some of the toughest engineering challenges in aviation, but said that the team is committed to pursuing them before the decade closes.

Founded with the intention to rethink how regional aviation could work in India, LAT Aerospace aims to experiment with aircraft platforms that can operate from shorter, simpler airstrips and unlock denser connectivity between smaller cities. 

While the company’s long-term vision is still unfolding, this first demonstrator marks an early, tangible step in that direction.

For more information on the company’s work and roadmap, Deepinder Goyal directed readers to lat.com.

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