German aviation startup Lilium has completed a number of flight tests for its emissions-free electric jet, which is capable of vertical take-off.
The VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) tests were conducted with the company’s two-seater prototype and demonstrated several manoeuvres including “mid-air transition from hover mode to wing-borne forward flight”. The company will now move on to developing a five seater model.
“Seeing the Lilium Jet take to the sky and performing sophisticated manoeuvres with apparent ease is testament to the skill and perseverance of our amazing team. We have solved some of the toughest engineering challenges in aviation to get to this point,” said the company’s CEO Daniel Wiegand.
“The successful test flight programme shows that our ground-breaking technical design works exactly as we envisioned. We can now turn our focus to designing the five seater production aircraft.”
Lilium Jet claimed that its aircraft can achieve a range of more than 300km. It is powered by 36 electric jet engines. The aircraft consumes about as much power as an electric car, the company added, and requires limited space for vertical take-off.
Lilium Jet has ambitious long-term plans to provide on-demand taxi-like services.
The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Munich. It raised €10 million in late 2016 from Atomico.
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