German startup Lilium Aviation has raised a whopping $90 million investment for their electric aeroplane that can take off and land vertically (eVTOL). The money is intended for a completely new prototype.
Behind the development of the flying taxi are four graduate students from the Technische Universität München. The $90 million is for the 'second round', as the startup has been working since 2015. The investment will be used to develop a new prototype that can carry five passengers and cargo, with a range of 300 km. In doing so, the developers aim to respond to "future transport needs in busy urban areas, such as between London Heathrow and the centre of the UK capital". The aircraft only needs a 15-by-15-metre area to take off and land.
In April, Lilium experienced a world first when its fully customised prototype managed to perform the most difficult manoeuvre: transitioning between 'hover mode' and horizontal flight. It apparently gave investors enough confidence to put money into the jet. "The investment is a very important step for Lilium as it allows us to make the five-seater flying taxi a reality," said Daniel Wiegand, co-founder and CEO of Lilium. "This is the next stage in our meteoric revolution; from an idea to the production of a commercially successful aircraft that will revolutionise the way we travel in and around global cities. Like us, our investors believe that the technology we are applying will put us at the forefront of an exciting new industry."
Test flight
Lilium's aircraft is based entirely on electric propulsion: it can manoeuvre in densely populated areas with low noise and emissions. As mentioned, the Lilium Jet has a range of 300 km per hour. The developers give the example that this would mean that a distance from Manhattan to JFK Airport slehcts about five minutes. And that at the same cost as a normal taxi.
The flying taxi contains a number of small electrically powered jet engines, which can rotate on their axis. When the aircraft takes off, the engines are in a vertical position. As it reaches a certain altitude, they turn more and more to a horizontal position; just until the motion created by the wings rising is enough to stay in the air. In the new model to be developed, there are 36 of small engines with a total power of 320 kW: 12 in both front wings and 24 in the tail wings. The fact that there are so many engines adds to safety. Once one or more of these engines fail, the aircraft can still land safely. The engines make about as much noise as a large truck, according to the company.
The design of the aircraft is quite simplistic: the engines are in a flap at the back of the wings, so the wing itself does not rotate like other versions that can take off and land vertically. Because the jet engines become horizontal in the air, the aircraft reaches a brisk speed of 300 km/h, unlike, say, quadcopters where the propellers are always vertical.
Composite
The aircraft uses carbon fibre reinforced with composite. This is to keep the little plane as light as possible. The stability comes from the thrust of the motors and is not fixed in the tail.
Lilium Aviation expects to make the first test flight with passengers in 2018. The new prototype has been sponsored by Tencent, a private banking group, among others; Atomico, set up by one of the founders of Skype; and Obvious Ventures, of which the former CEO of Twitter is the co-founder.
Below is a video of the Lilium Jet's test flights conducted so far:
By: Kelly Bakker
Source + photo: Lilium Aviation
