Lilium VTOL Air Taxi Development and Testing

Lilium Air Mobility, founded in 2015 in Weßling Germany, is developing an electrically powered vertical and takeoff and landing aircraft for the emerging and increasingly crowded “urban air mobility” sector, which envisions fleets of small aircraft, initially piloted but eventually autonomous, flitting around cities, avoiding gridlock on surface streets, and providing transit to and from destinations such as airports. Lilium’s eventual product which is called, for some screwball reason, “Lilium Jet”, uses 36 propellers driven by electric motors powered by lithium-ion batteries. The propellers are in ducted fan enclosures, but there is nothing anybody would call a “jet” involved. The design has changed several times over the years, but is currently aiming for seven seats (pilot and six passengers).

This video shows the Lilium Phoenix 2 demonstrator transitioning between vertical flight and horizontal wing-supported cruise in a test flight on 2022-05-31.