<story><title>The Lilium Jet</title><url>https://lilium.com/jet</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>z9znz</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m glad people take on crazy projects and push them to some level of completion.  That&amp;#x27;s how we learn and progress overall.  Unfortunately for the people who do follow through with unconventional ideas, actually getting a thing to work doesn&amp;#x27;t necessarily mean (financial) success.&lt;p&gt;In this case, there&amp;#x27;s really one big benefit at the cost of a lot of negatives.&lt;p&gt;It can VTOL&amp;#x2F;VSTOL.  Most fixed wing airplanes cannot do that.  So it can theoretically take off in a parking lot or a helipad or a small field.  That&amp;#x27;s really the only plus as I can tell.&lt;p&gt;The negatives are many compared to a traditional plane.  In no particular order:&lt;p&gt;Less efficient cruising due to much more drag from all the ducts and engines.&lt;p&gt;Much less likely to fly with engine failures as they can dramatically affect control (since they are essential parts of the control system).&lt;p&gt;Less control surface stability with mechanical or hydraulic failures.  Those engines mounted on the surfaces hanging off a hinge are very heavy, and in some failure cases they would hang low and create immense drag.&lt;p&gt;Yaw (rotational) control is highly dependent on working engines on both sides.&lt;p&gt;The glide ratio of the aircraft would be very poor with all the drag, even assuming the surfaces were still controllable (not hanging).&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;#x27;t see, but I assume a parachute is part of the plan for this.  I doubt it could pass certifications (at least to carry passengers) without it.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Lilium Jet</title><url>https://lilium.com/jet</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>kybernetikos</author><text>This is very cool.  But it&amp;#x27;s also spending a lot of novelty points.  I thought energy density was still a huge problem, so it seems weird to try to solve the problem of electric planes with acceptable range at the same time as tackling the enormously energy intensive problem of VTOL.</text></comment>