Startup Lilium introduces five-seat electric jet

Munich startup Lilium presents five-seat electric jet with a drive consists of 36 electric jet engines together.

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German startup Lilium is pushing ahead with an "on-demand air mobility service" that will allow anyone to fly anywhere, anytime. The Munich have developed a new all-electric aircraft type. The current prototype of the flight taxi used on a successful first flight in early May has now been officially presented.

According to the developers, the Lilium Jet is the world's first fully electrically powered air taxi designed for five people. It has a range of 300 kilometers, which can be covered in 60 minutes without CO2 emissions. The drive consists of 36 electric jet engines. With them, the Lilium Jet can take off and land vertically, efficiently covering further distances with the buoyancy of its wings in horizontal cruising flight.

The minimalist design of the E-Jet comes with no rear end, rudder, propeller, gearbox and with only one moving part in the engine. This not only contributes to safety and low production costs, so Lilium, but also allow "a fascinating flight experience, from panoramic windows to folding doors".
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Company CEO and co-founder Daniel Wiegand said: "Today, we are taking another giant step towards realizing individual urban air mobility. In less than two years, we have succeeded in designing, building and successfully flying an aircraft that will now serve as the basis for the planned mass production. "

With a maximum speed of 300 km / h and a range of 300 kilometers, the Lilium Jet can cover significantly longer flights than most competitors, says the company. This allows in particular the fixed wing construction of the aircraft. While drone flight solutions consume much of their energy to stay in the air, the Lilium Jet benefits from the added buoyancy of the fixed wings. He needed during the cruise less than ten percent of its maximum 2000 hp.

"Thanks to this efficiency, the energy consumption of the Lilium Jet equals that of an electric car over the same distance," explains Lilium. "Not only will the aircraft be able to connect suburbs to city centers and airports to mainline stations, but it will also provide affordable high-speed connections across entire regions."
Customers of Lilium's on-demand airline taxi service should be able to find the nearest landing site and plan their trip at the push of a button with an app. "Thanks to a dense network of landing sites in cities and regions, passengers will benefit from flights that are comparable in price to a taxi, but four times faster," promises the company. Lilium expects to be fully operational by 2025 in various cities around the world. Already before that the trial operation is to begin at several locations.

"We dream of a world in which every human being can fly to any destination at any time. We've invested so much thought and care into the design of the aircraft and the services we have to do to achieve that" said Wiegand on the vision of Lilium. "To get there, we had to tackle some of the biggest challenges in aviation, but now we've reached it and can focus on bringing our vision to life."


Via: Lilium
Images: Lilium
Video: Lilium