The german aviation company Lilium is developing an electrical VTOL jet and received last year a new funding from United States with a value of 90$ million. Successful test flights in 2017, Lilium refers that this investment will be the key in making its vision of a five-seater aircraft that will take travellers from Manhattan to JFK airport in… five minutes!
Lilium company was founded in 2016 of at the European Space Agency (ESA) led by Technical University of Munich’s engineers and doctoral students. It was established to change urban travel with
a quiet,
all-electric,
with 3D printed parts
flying taxi that can be summoned with a push of a smartphone button.
LILIUM FIRST JET PROTOTYPE DESIGN:
to carry two passengers
at speeds of up to 250mph,
retractable landing gear
and fly-by-wire controls to take off and land in rather confined spaces of larger than 15 x 15 m (49 x 49 ft).
Lilium flew its two-seater prototype in 2017, successfully testing its maneuverability as its ability to transition from hovering to horizontal flight. Those tests allowed the team to turned its attention to
a larger five-seater production version,
a range of over 300km (186mi)
top speed of 186mph.
Jet’s efficiency reduce pricing and time (five times faster than a car), two competitive advantages offered to customers, and investors are following innovations. These investors are the Chinese Holding and Tencent, Atomico and Obvious Ventures.
Along with further developing the aircraft, the money will also be used to expand the team behind it as it targets 2019 for its first manned flights.
“We are continuing to recruit the very brightest and best global talent in aeronautical engineering, physics, electric propulsion and computer science to join us on this extraordinary aviation journey where the only limits are the laws of physics,”
Daniel Wiegand, Lilium co-founder & CEO.
- Sources & More information
-
Sources :
Lilium website; Lavars, Nick 6 September 2017, https://newatlas.com/lilium-funding-flying-taxi/51216/, visited on 18th March 2018.Video credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohig71bwRUE, visited on 21st March 2018.Image credits:
Lilium website https://newatlas.com/lilium-funding-flying-taxi/51216/, visited on 18th March 2018.
additivenews.com
Source: Lilium
https://newatlas.com/lilium-funding-flying-taxi/51216/ usar esta noticia