Singapore’s secret eVTOL, built by new grads
A story of NDAs and grit.
It was the morning of February 3rd at the 2026 Singapore Airshow when Professor James Wang and a dozen young researchers knew they were about to unveil the surprise of their lifetime.
For nearly three years, the team had been working tirelessly towards the day under strict nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). Through these years they worked with two hopes in mind: that flight testing of their homegrown electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) would prove successful, and that news of Singapore’s first locally designed and built technology demonstrator aircraft would not leak.
“Professor Wang told us we weren’t even allowed to tell our dog or cat,” recalled Programme Manager Dr. Christine Teh.
The 8-meter wingspan eVTOL prototype produced in secret at NTU
But it wasn’t just the team bound by NDAs. Industry partners including Eaton Aerospace, Syensqo, Admiralty, Flare Dynamics, BJO, A@STAR and more were also sworn to secrecy.
With over 30 years of aircraft industry experience, Wang knew what was at stake. He was determined to keep the project under wraps, wary of announcing too early in a field where setbacks and distractions could easily derail young teams.
The big reveal
The intense effort culminated in an unveiling to around 100 VIPS, industry partners, journalists and airshow attendees. Wang gave a brief explanation about the project’s history and inspiration before removing a red cloth to reveal the 8-meter wingspan aircraft. A small wooden plaque positioned beneath the fuselage bore a simple declaration: Designed, Engineered and Built in Singapore.
The reveal was over almost as quickly as it began, but the reaction lingered. The surprise was palpable, even among seasoned industry insiders.
“Even the government ministries were surprised,” said Wang. “They may have heard whispers about eVTOL and advanced air mobility work, but they did not expect a working prototype to be built so quietly in Singapore.”
Left to right: NTU Professor James Wang, Professor Ric Parker, Professor Lam Khin Yong; and Mr Tan Chun Wei
A talent challenge
According to Wang, comparable eVTOL programmes are typically staffed by dozens of engineers, many with years of industry experience. NTU’s effort, by contrast, relied on around 30 fresh graduates. This was mostly out of necessity.
As this was the first aircraft designed and built in Singapore, there was no ready pool of engineers with vertical flight nor electric propulsion expertise. Recruiting from overseas would have meant competing with well-funded startups in Europe and the United States. Professionals would also need to be persuaded to uproot their lives and careers for an unproven university project.
The lack of experienced eVTOL engineers may have been a constraint, but Wang was determined to turn it into an advantage. Working with fresh out of university graduates meant starting with a blank slate. There were no entrenched habits and no assumptions about what could or could not be done. It also meant asking them to accelerate their transition from university to professional life, mastering not only technical skills but accountability and responsibility.
Wang coached and pushed the team, placing responsibility directly on their shoulders. Each engineer was expected to understand not just their own system, but also how it fits into the wider project, from design and integration to testing and flight readiness.
Professor James Wang and members of the team with their 8-meter wingspan eVTOL
Working on an entire aircraft from start to finish is a rare opportunity, Wang noted, one that many engineers may never experience. Some professionals spend their entire careers developing just a single component.
“After three years, the young researchers became the best of the best,” he said. “They understand what it means when you say failure is not an option.”
Stretch goal, or near impossible?
When Wang moved to Singapore in 2019, he left dual senior executive roles in research and development and marketing at AgustaWestland to join NTU and establish its eVTOL Research and Innovation Centre. His goal was to build strong research capability with an eye on commercially viable electric air taxis.
The global eVTOL industry, Wang believed, was approaching an inflection point. The technology was early enough that standards, certification, infrastructure and public acceptance were still being defined, but late enough that the technology was no longer speculative. Singapore did not need to be the first to nail the technology, he argued, but it could not afford to be late.
To be viable for this young team, Wang believed the project had to sit uncomfortably close to the edge of what the team could deliver. It had to be near impossible. Finding that threshold became a design exercise in itself.
Wang and his team at work
Initially, a small core of what would grow to be the full team studied more than two dozen possible eVTOL configurations. They evaluated each against criteria that included technical risk, manufacturability, timeline and what a first-time team could realistically execute. More complex concepts, including tandem wings and tilting rotors, scored highly on performance but carried steep integration and control challenges.
In the end, the team deliberately stepped back from the most advanced designs and chose a lift-plus-cruise configuration that balanced ambition with achievability. It was sophisticated enough to generate meaningful data and experience, but restrained enough to be built, integrated and tested on schedule by a young team learning as they went – by the narrowest of margins.
The tech
The prototype unveiled at the airshow was conceived as a full-scale technology demonstrator, designed to generate flight data, validate systems and prove that an eVTOL aircraft could be developed and tested locally.
The aircraft adopts a lift-plus-cruise configuration, with eight electric lift rotors mounted along the wings to provide vertical take-off and landing through distributed electric propulsion. Once airborne, a rear-mounted proprotor delivers forward thrust, enabling the transition to wing-borne flight like a conventional aeroplane. In cruise, the eight lift motors are powered down.
Separating lift from cruise was a deliberate technical decision. Compared with tilt-wing or tilt-rotor concepts, the architecture reduces mechanical and control-system complexity, particularly during the demanding transition phase.
The design emphasis was on controllability and integration simplicity that would lay the groundwork for more advanced designs to follow.
Hover, ship and fly
Designing and building the aircraft under secrecy was only part of the challenge. Proving that it could fly safely and controllably was another.
The first test flights took place at a restricted testing area in north-western Singapore known as Kranji under tightly controlled conditions. Because this was the first time a large size cleansheet designed aircraft was tested in Singapore, the aircraft was limited to tethered hover tests. Even so, getting to that point was a milestone. It required months of design reviews and close engagement with regulators before approval was granted to lift the aircraft off the ground at all.
Testing of aircraft at Kranji by NTU researchers
The stable hover marked the programme’s first major validation milestone and confirmation that the aircraft’s core systems worked together as intended. It validated vertical lift, motor performance, electric power distribution, and flight control and stability under tightly controlled conditions.
“Some of the team members were so overjoyed that they cried,” commented Teh. “It made everything suddenly very real.”
Next, the team needed to prove transition dynamics, stability across flight modes, control response and system interactions over longer durations and distances.
For that, they needed space.
Wang contacted Germany’s national aerospace research centre, DLR. The centre agreed to provide airport access in exchange for flight test data they could use themselves to better understand air taxi flight envelopes and acoustic noise. Additionally, DLR would conduct independent performance analyses, comparing its calculations with NTU’s predicted and measured results.
The aircraft was shipped to Europe in two 40-foot containers.
Plan B
“It’s not easy to ship aircraft abroad, especially when it is classified as an unmanned aircraft, like this one,” detailed Teh.
The process was new territory for the team. An aircraft classified as an unmanned aircraft is treated as sensitive equipment, requiring thorough checks on its purpose and potential dual-use implications. Export clearances had to be clarified with government agencies, and customs procedures were sometimes tedious. The approvals took time. Then the vessel itself was delayed.
Wang turned to Plan B, leading a small advance party of four researchers to pack their bags and NDA-safe cover stories, and head to Germany to conduct flight testing on a quarter scale version of the aircraft.
While there, the team familiarized themselves with the environment in preparation for a larger crew returning to test the 8-meter span aircraft later this year.
Flight testing in Germany
Most of the testing on the smaller aircraft would directly carry over. Avionics, flight control computers, software architecture, communications and system logic are designed to be scalable, so they do not need to be reinvented. The larger 8-meter vehicle testing at a later date would extend forward flight, higher altitudes and longer test distances, moving closer to real-world operating conditions.
With their initial quarter-scale testing complete, the team was finally ready to tell the world.
“Sharing this secret project for so long really bonded the team,” reflected Teh. “We had no one to talk to about it, so we just talked to each other.”
After the show
For Wang, Teh and the team, the aircraft unveiled at the 2026 Singapore Airshow is not an endpoint. The plan is to build a full-scale operational prototype that can carry four passenger and one pilot, or alternatively a cargo payload of around 500 kg.
“We want to further optimize the design and potentially create a spin-off,” declared Wang.
The director and professor notes that timing matters. No eVTOL aircraft has yet received full certification from regulators such as the FAA or EASA, and industry watchers do not expect the first approvals before 2027. In the meantime, the emphasis is on learning, readiness and staying close enough to the curve to move quickly when the window opens.
But for now, the team has the satisfaction of knowing not only did they get to see their work come to fruition they also no longer must worry about keeping their day jobs a secret.
Story by Laura Dobberstein, NTU College of Engineering
