Mobile automation
First flight of an electric vertical take-off air cab
The 'Lilium Jet', the world's first electrically powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft, has successfully completed its maiden flight in the skies above Bavaria.
The Lilium Jet is the only electric aircraft to date that can take off and land vertically as well as fly forward using its wings for lift, just like a normal airplane. With this capability, it consumes up to 90 percent less energy than drone-like aircraft. This enables the Lilium Jet to achieve a range of over 300 km with a top speed of 300 km/h.
Lilium plans to follow up the two-seater prototype with a five-seater jet that will be used as an air cab. For example, a flight from Manhattan to JFK Airport in New York would take around five minutes instead of the usual 55 minutes by car. Instead of the current cost of 56 to 73 dollars with the wheel-based cab, the aircraft would initially cover the distance for 36 dollars, 13 dollars in the medium term and six dollars in the long term.
The Lilium Jet is a light aircraft powered by 36 electric jet turbines that are attached directly to the wings via twelve movable flaps. For take-off, the flaps are pointed downwards to generate vertical lift. Once the jet is in the air, the flaps slowly move to a horizontal position to generate forward thrust. When the wing flaps are completely horizontal, all the lift needed to keep the aircraft in the air is generated by the air flowing over the wing surfaces - just like a conventional airplane, and in flight the jet's energy consumption per kilometer is comparable to that of an electric car.
Lilium was founded in 2015 by Daniel Wiegand and three fellow students from the Technical University of Munich and has grown into a company with more than 40 engineers in less than two years. Financial support is provided by well-known investors such as Niklas Zennström, Frank Thelen, Christian Reber and Alexander Asseily.
Lilium is not the only company to focus on electric air cabs. Airbus, for example, recently presented its multimodal concept, but has not yet put a prototype in the air.
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