Can battery-electric and hydrogen propulsion coexist in future VTOL aircraft? BluJ Aerospace sees complementary roles for both, with batteries powering shorter-range flights and hydrogen fuel cells supporting longer-range aircraft. Pranay Rebala of BluJ Aerospace spoke to EFY’s Nitisha Dubey about the technologies, manufacturing strategy, and challenges facing advanced air mobility.
Q. Please introduce BluJ Aerospace.
A. BluJ Aerospace was founded about three years ago to develop VTOL aircraft for regional transportation in India. We believe that while major cities have seen rapid infrastructure growth over the last two decades, the next phase of economic expansion will come from Tier-2 cities, small towns, and remote regions. Building airports, railways, and highways everywhere is extremely expensive, especially when traffic volumes are still relatively low. Our idea is to create a more sustainable transportation solution using VTOL, or vertical take-off and landing, aircraft. We are initially focusing on cargo because that is where we see the most immediate and practical opportunity.
Q. What exactly does BluJ Aerospace manufacture?
A. We manufacture complete VTOL aircraft. These are not conventional aeroplanes or helicopters. A conventional aeroplane requires a runway, while a helicopter can take off vertically but becomes less energy-efficient over longer distances. Our aircraft combines the flexibility of a helicopter for take-off and landing with the efficiency of a fixed-wing aeroplane for forward flight. This allows us to connect remote locations without requiring large airport infrastructure.
Q. How much of the aircraft is designed and manufactured in-house?
A. We design and manufacture the airframe structure, battery packs, electric motors, inverters, propulsion architecture, and overall system integration in-house. The flight controller is currently sourced from a certified external supplier because that is a safety-critical system and certified solutions are already available in the market. Our localisation strategy focuses on components that are either highly customised for our aircraft or account for a significant share of the overall cost.
Q. What is the current localisation level of your aircraft?
A. By component cost, our aircraft is currently around 75% localised through in-house manufacturing. However, that does not mean every raw material comes from India. High-power battery cells are still sourced internationally, mainly because India does not yet have large-scale production capacity for them. Similarly, rare-earth magnets used in motors are sourced from different global suppliers depending on availability and design requirements.
Q. Tell us about your manufacturing facility.
A. Our facility is located in the aerospace industrial park at Adibatla, Hyderabad. It is currently designed for low-volume production and has an annual production capacity of roughly 15 to 20 aircraft. The manufacturing area is about 25,000 to 30,000 square feet (2322.57-2787.09 square metres). We have CNC routers for producing moulds, custom manufacturing equipment, assembly and integration infrastructure, and system-level testing capabilities.
Q. Do you conduct all testing in-house?
A. Not all of it. We perform motor validation, reliability testing, system-level testing, and system integration internally. However, environmental testing and certain structural tests are conducted through external laboratories. Our engineers work closely with those labs throughout testing. This approach is more practical at our current scale because building every test facility in-house would require significant additional investment.
Q. What are your current commercial products?
A. Our current product family is called the BluJ Reach series. It has two variants. Reach M is a shorter-range multicopter platform, while Reach L is a longer-range fixed-wing VTOL platform designed for heavier cargo operations. These are not off-the-shelf aircraft. Each aircraft is customised according to the customer’s operational needs, such as payload type, compartment design, refrigeration requirements, and mission profile.
Q. Which industries are you targeting first?
A. We are initially focusing on sectors that already use some form of aerial logistics or operate in difficult-to-access locations. That includes logistics operators, oil and gas companies, construction firms, maritime operators, and infrastructure companies. We also see opportunities in moving cargo between major logistics hubs and remote towns where road transport is slow or unreliable.
Q. Why are you focusing more on leasing and services instead of direct aircraft sales?
A. Because the market is still developing. Many customers are unfamiliar with VTOL operations, maintenance requirements, and operational economics. By offering the aircraft through leasing or as a service, we lower the initial cost and operational commitment for customers. Customers can pay based on cargo weight, distance, or mission profile without making a large upfront investment. This also gives us valuable operational data and experience before we scale up direct aircraft sales.
Q. What is the current commercial status of the business?
A. We are still in the pre-revenue stage for our core aircraft business. We have conducted demonstration flights and are in discussions with multiple potential customers. We also generate limited revenue through subsystem and component sales for applications that do not compete with our main business. In many ways, we are entering a market that is still developing, and we are helping build a new category of regional aerial logistics.
Q. BluJ is also working on hydrogen propulsion. Why pursue both batteries and hydrogen?
A. We are not choosing one over the other. Our first commercial aircraft will be a battery-electric aircraft for shorter-range operations. In parallel, we are developing hydrogen fuel-cell systems for future long-range VTOL platforms with a target range of about 250km. The aim is to prepare for the next phase of sustainable aerial mobility rather than wait for the technology to mature and start from scratch later.
Q. How will the battery and hydrogen fuel cell work together?
A. We are using a parallel hybrid architecture. During take-off and landing, both the battery and the fuel cell provide power because those phases require very high power. Once the aircraft transitions to efficient fixed-wing cruise flight, the power demand drops significantly, and the fuel cell becomes the primary power source. This combines the high-power capability of batteries with the higher energy density and endurance benefits of hydrogen. The dual-power architecture also provides a degree of redundancy, improving power reliability.
Q. Hydrogen safety is a major concern in aviation. How are you addressing it?
A. Safety is central to the programme. We follow established hydrogen leak-rate and safety standards. We have already built and ground-tested high-pressure Type-4 carbon-fibre hydrogen tanks and a fuel-cell powerplant. The tanks undergo burst and leak testing, while the overall system incorporates sensing, monitoring, and safety-management mechanisms.
Q. What are the biggest challenges for scaling BluJ Aerospace?
A. The biggest challenge is the regulatory and operational framework for long-range autonomous or remotely supervised cargo flights. Today, many operations are limited to visual-line-of-sight conditions. For regional cargo VTOLs to operate at scale, we need beyond-visual-line-of-sight approvals, operational procedures, airworthiness standards, and safety-management frameworks. We are working closely with regulators on these requirements.
Q. Finally, what is the long-term vision for BluJ Aerospace?
A. Our immediate focus is to establish operational cargo services, expand the Reach product line, and advance the 250km hydrogen-electric aircraft programme. As production volumes increase, we plan to build a larger dedicated manufacturing facility. In the long term, once cargo operations have reached sufficient maturity and gained public confidence, we intend to enter the passenger mobility market. Our goal is to help build an Indian ecosystem for advanced air mobility and aerial logistics.
