Self-taught Almora innovator's electric flying vehicle completes test flight

Ravi Tamta from Almora, Uttarakhand, has no formal engineering degree but spent 13 years learning online to build HAPIDA SKYNeX, a single-seat electric flying vehicle. In an August 2026 trial supervised by district officials, the prototype lifted off from an Army helipad in Almora and stayed airborne for nearly a minute. Tamta hopes such craft can help hill areas with difficult roads.