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New Delhi: India may soon have its own homegrown gas turbine engine powering aircraft and UAVs, and Deepinder Goyal is betting on it. The Zomato and Blinkit founder has announced that his aerospace startup, LAT (Lightweight Aerospace Technologies), is setting up a dedicated propulsion research team in Bengaluru to build gas turbine engines from scratch.
The plan isn’t just about building another lab. It’s a serious attempt to cross the line where earlier efforts stopped short. Goyal made the announcement on LinkedIn, noting that while India has come close in the past, LAT wants to go all the way with a made-in-India, flight-ready engine.
According to Goyal, this new propulsion team will not be bound by traditional corporate hierarchies. Instead, it will be led entirely by engineers, with minimal interference from business operations. He says LAT is building a dedicated research centre in Bengaluru equipped with labs for combustion, turbomachinery, thermal systems, and materials testing.
He wrote, “We’re giving engineers the freedom to think, build, break, and repeat,” highlighting LAT’s goal to move fast and focus on real-world outcomes. Goyal also emphasised that the team will skip over lengthy corporate procedures and concentrate purely on hardware development, hands-on problem solving, and bench testing.
If successful, LAT’s project could set a major milestone for Indian aerospace. The company aims to build a full gas turbine engine stack locally, which could be used in:
This would be a major leap forward in India’s efforts toward self-reliance in aviation and defence technologies.
Goyal admitted the project won’t be easy but added that if it works, it could change everything about how India approaches mass aviation. “Powering STOL aircraft. UAVs. Remote connectivity. Self-reliance,” he wrote.
LAT is actively looking to hire engineers with experience in turbines, rotors, control systems, or related areas. In his LinkedIn post, Goyal called out directly to potential candidates, saying, “If you’ve ever built turbines, rotors, control systems, or anything close, and want to be part of something that could one day, rewrite history, write to us at engines@lat.com.”
LAT has big ambitions for how people fly in the future. The startup’s official vision imagines a world where regional flights are as simple as taking a bus. The company wants to create a network of 24-seater, low-cost, short-haul aircraft that can operate out of small landing areas the size of parking lots, called “air-stops.”
These aircraft will be powered by efficient engines and designed to avoid the hassle of airport queues, security checks, or baggage belts. It’s a vision that prioritises speed, affordability, and access — especially for tier-2 and tier-3 towns that current air travel routes often skip.
Goyal says this future isn’t about unrealistic supersonic jets but about solving real transportation problems that many people in India face today.
If LAT succeeds, it could not only advance India’s aviation industry but also reduce dependency on imported propulsion systems and boost local manufacturing.
