TriFan bestilt til India uten noe som helst regelverk på plass - AIN

February 20, 2018

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XTI’s TriFan 600 Adds First Indian Order to Backlog Denver-based XTI Aircraft received the first order from an Indian customer for its hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) TriFan 600. Arvind Lal, chairman and managing director of Dr. Lal’s Path Labs, placed the milestone order for the $6.5 million aircraft, which is expected to enter service in late 2022/early 2023. Dr. Lal’s Path Labs has more than 170 pathology laboratories and 1,600 collection centers across India. “We have plans to run these VTOL/STOL aircraft that suit our needs for picking up samples in underserved remote areas, which will help in speeding up results for our patients,” he said. Meanwhile, XTI's flight-test program “will take four years, with production starting in 2022,” XTI vice president of global business development Saleem Zaheer told AIN at a recent aviation summit in Mumbai. “India generally accepts airplanes that have been certified under FAA or EASA regulations. FAA certification will occur under the existing ‘powered lift’ category, which might be something new for India.” With the initial configuration and engineering analysis complete, XTI is assembling the first 60-percent-scale prototype to fly by September. Of the more than 60 orders placed for the TriFan 600 to date, about 30 are from customers in the Middle East and Asia, the company said.