Lilium GmbH, the aircraft start-up from Weßling, Germany, has been developing the all-electric Lilium Jet taxi for a relatively long time. The company already succeeded in May in getting the aircraft to take off and land again successfully. In October, the company conducted new tests of its flying car, during which it was able to accelerate to more than 100 km/h. And now, the company has shared a video of the flight.
The video shows how the device performs a vertical take-off and then flies at a low altitude in the test zone horizontally. The aircraft completes a rough figure of eight during the flight and also lay at an angle of up to 30°. It took off and landed vertically and accelerated to over 30 knots. The left turn was the real purpose of this test flight, which was carried out in early October.
The 20° AoB (Angle of Bank) was initiated for a 90° heading change. This was followed by an AoB of 30° for the rest of the turn.
A climb rate of 300 ft per minute and a flight speed of 35 knots was achieved for climbing and landing. According to Lilium, the VTOL jet thus achieved all of the targets in the test. Since then, higher speeds of up to 100 km/h have been achieved by the Lilium. The first phase of the test has already been completed.
The Lilium Jet air taxi is intended to be used as an air taxi from 2025 and can carry a maximum of five people over a distance of 300 km/h. For this, the five-seater Jet is equipped with 36 electric motors on its wings. These all-electric motors blow air out so that a force is placed on the device in the opposite direction. According to Lilium, these engines are relatively quiet. They would also cause little vibration, so the flight will be comfortable for passengers.
