Fri, Sep 30, 2022
Lilium Jet On Pace for 2025 Certification
Lilium, the Munich-based, German aerospace concern, has announced that its Phoenix II eVTOL technology demonstrator aircraft achieved its first full transition from vertical, thrust-powered flight to horizontal, wing-borne, aerodynamic flight.
In a letter to its shareholders, Lilium reported the transition had been accomplished during a 23 September test-flight at Spain’s ATLAS (Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced unmanned Systems) facility—a research aerodrome optimized for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Lilium shareholders were further advised that the company currently holds provisional sales agreements for 483 aircraft, for which it expects to sign firm contracts with pre-delivery payments due in 2023. Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe reported, also, that deposits had been taken on a limited edition executive version of the Lilium Jet, which the company has begun to offer through private aviation powerhouse NetJets.
Lilium engineers plans to add an additional technology demonstrator to the company’s flight-test program in preparation for the construction of the first type-conforming specimen of its seven-passenger eVTOL—which is slated to fly in 2024. Recent battery-aging performance tests have shown that Lilium’s target of over eight-hundred recharge cycles with eighty-percent capacity retention is attainable. The test data bodes well for the dispatch reliability and range of the company’s future production aircraft.
Successful transitions and promising battery data notwithstanding, EASA and Lilium remain about the business of hammering out a final agreement pertaining to the workings and schedule of the Lilium Jet’s certification program. In the short-term, Lilium is preparing for a design organization approval audit to be conducted by EASA during the first half of 2023. Type certification is now targeted for 2025.
To date, Lilium has filed 69 patent applications germane to its eVTOL concept, of which the European Patent Office has published 42. The company is filing supplementary applications for subject patents in the U.S. and China.
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