An Indian startup says it has made an unconventional electric aircraft fly.

An Indian startup says it has made an unconventional electric aircraft fly. Punjab-based Nalwa Aero has flight-tested a scaled model of its box-wing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, demonstrating hovering and forward flight with electric propulsion and an all-tilting-rotor system. Founder and CEO Kuljeet Sandhu announced the tests on LinkedIn and described them as a world-first, a claim that has not been independently verified. In a box-wing design, the front and rear wings are connected at their tips.

This is an early milestone. It was a scaled model, not the proposed passenger aircraft, and the company has not disclosed the model’s dimensions, the number of flights or their duration. Nalwa Aero hopes to develop the design into a five-seat aircraft for passenger transport, air ambulances and cargo, but it has not announced a date for a full-scale first flight.