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22nd April 2017

World's first electric VTOL jet completes maiden flight

Lilium Jet, the first zero-emission electric plane capable of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL), has completed a series of rigorous flight tests in the skies above Germany.

A two-seater prototype, as seen in the video below, executed a range of complex manoeuvres, including its signature mid-air transition from hover mode into wing-borne forward flight. Lilium is now developing a larger, five-seater version – designed for on-demand air taxi and ride-sharing services.

Celebrating the landmark moment, Lilium co-founder and CEO Daniel Wiegand said: "Seeing the Lilium Jet take to the sky and performing sophisticated manoeuvres with apparent ease is testament to the skill and perseverance of our amazing team. We have solved some of the toughest engineering challenges in aviation to get to this point.

"The successful test flight programme shows that our ground-breaking technical design works exactly as we envisioned. We can now turn our focus to designing the five-seater production aircraft."

 

 

 

The Lilium Jet is 100% electrically powered, so creates no harmful emissions, making it a potential solution to deteriorating air quality in towns and cities caused by road traffic. It is also the only electric aircraft capable of both VTOL and jet-powered flight, using wings for lift, similar to a conventional plane. Its advanced capabilities mean the Lilium Jet consumes around 90% less energy than drone-style aircraft, allowing it to achieve a range of greater than 300 km (186 miles) with a maximum cruising speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). In flight, the Jet's power consumption per kilometre will be comparable to an electric car.

Take-off and landing requires only a small open space or landing pad on a building, alleviating pressure on congested roads. In the future, Lilium claims that this combination of energy-efficient flight and minimal ground infrastructure will enable passenger flights to be made with pricing comparable to normal car taxis over the same distance. A typical journey by Lilium Jet will be at least 5x faster than by car, with even greater efficiencies in busy cities. For example, a flight from Manhattan to New York's JFK Airport will take around five minutes, compared to 55 minutes driving.

The ability of the Lilium Jet to travel long distances, quickly and at low cost, will also open new opportunities for people to live much further away from their place of work. Lilium describes this new phenomenon as "increasing the radius of living by 5x."

 

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Credit: Lilium

 

How the Lilium Jet Works

The Lilium Jet is a lightweight aircraft powered by 36 electric jet engines mounted to its wings via 12 moveable flaps. It is unique in combining the benefits of VTOL offered by helicopters and drones, with the speed and range of a jet aircraft. At take-off, the Lilium Jet's flaps are pointed downwards to provide vertical lift.

Once airborne, the flaps gradually tilt in to a horizontal position, providing forward thrust. When the wing flaps are horizontal, all of the lift required to keep the Lilium Jet in the air is provided by air passing over the wings – as with a conventional airplane.

 

flying car future timeline
Credit: Lilium

 

Safety is of primary concern with Lilium, and the Jet is designed along the principle of "ultra-redundancy": the aircraft's engines are individually shielded, so the failure of a single unit cannot affect adjacent engines. Similarly, the Lilium Jet's power cells are designed to continue delivering sufficient power for continued flight and a safe landing in the unlikely event that part of the battery configuration fails. Lilium's Flight Envelope Protection System also prevents the pilot from performing manoeuvres that would take the aircraft beyond safe flight parameters.

Lilium's development team brings together more than 40 international world-class engineers and designers. The group shares the vision of a completely new type of individual transportation system. The company's mission statement is "to enable a world where everybody can fly anywhere, anytime."

 

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Credit: Lilium

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