Lilium Jet

The Lilium Jet is a proposed German vertical take-off and landing electrically powered personal air vehicle designed by Lilium GmbH. The Lilium Jet five-seater prototype first flew in May 2019.
Development.
Many different subscale aircraft were tested first, and different design variants were studied where the wings would fold forward, so that the aircraft could be driven as a VTOL and recharge in only few hours from a standard 240 V electrical outlet. A first half-scale demonstrator, "Falcon", flew in 2015.
The unmanned first flight of the two-seat "Eagle" full size prototype was on 20 April 2017 at the Mindelheim-Mattsies airfield, Bavaria, Germany.
The five-seat unmanned Lilium Jet was flight tested at Oberpfaffenhofen airfield near Munich.
By October 2019, after 100 flights, it was transitioned from vertical to horizontal flight, reaching over , but not yet fully horizontal.
It managed 25° banked turns, high ascent/descent rates like in operations, hover turns and sideward translations.
Electrical, fan and flap failures were mitigated by the electrical and flight control systems.
The company employs around 350 people in Munich and expects to create around 500 jobs by 2025.
In July 2019, Lilium announced London, UK, as its base to develop its software engineering team. The engineering team is led by Carlos Morgado, former chief technology officer of Just Eat. Lilum announced the completion of its first manufacturing facility in October 2019.
The same month, the Lilium five-seater Jet received a Red Dot Award: Design Concept for “Best of the Best”.
The first prototype was destroyed by fire during maintenance on 27 February 2020. A second partially-constructed prototype was undamaged.
In February 2021, an article indicated that development on the five-seat prototype had ceased and that work was underway to develop a seven-seat aircraft, with projected first flight in 2022.
In April 2021, press reports indicated the establishment of fourteen dedicated vertiports spanning Florida, with service via the seven-seat Lilium Jet to begin in 2024.
Design.
The Lilium Jet is planned as a seven-seater aircraft (six passengers, one pilot.) It is powered by 36 electric motors, with six of them on each of the two front wings and twelve on each rear wing. In addition to the fixed part of the wings, the propellers and engines are installed above twelve tiltable rear flaps. The drive-carrying flaps are pivoted downwards for vertical launch. At the transition to the horizontal position, forward thrust is generated. This is claimed to be significantly more economical than a conventional rotorcraft.
The seven-seat Lilium Jet targets a range of . Its 36 electric ducted fans are powered by a lithium-ion battery; less than is required to cruise.
Specifications for the "Eagle" 2-seat prototype.
The predicted characteristics of the "Eagle" two-seat prototype (first flown in April 2017) are listed below.
Usage.
The Lilium GmbH plans to found an air taxi service for urban air mobility with the Lilium Jet. The company expects that pilots will be needed for around 10 years until autonomous flights can take over.