Lilium’s All-Electric VTOL Jet Just Took Off For the First Time
ilium has lift off! The world’s first electric vertical takeoff and landing jet, also known as a VTOL jet, has taken its first successful test flight. The two-seater prototype aircraft uses about the same amount of power as an electric car during flight, and its creators are hoping to spark a revolution in global transit.
“We want to establish and build a new means of transportation,” Daniel Weigand, co-founder and CEO of Lilium, said in a company video released Thursday.
The aircraft is unique because it is capable of both vertical takeoff and landing, where the aircraft pushes up against the ground, as well as more conventional jet-powered flight. In the latter mode, the aircraft uses wing-borne lift like a conventional airplane, which means it can move faster than a car and a helicopter. It has a range of 300 kilometers (190 miles) and a top speed of 300 km/h (190 mph).
Because of the dual flight modes that can employ jet power when needed, the machine uses 90 percent less energy than a traditional drone-style aircraft. This could prove valuable in the air taxi space, where Lilium envisions customers ordering an aircraft similar to other ride-sharing services. The VTOL capabilities will mean the aircraft can land on small pads inside cities.
Drone taxis look set to be a big focus for ride-sharing firms over the coming years. Uber outlined a VTOL service in October that would work in conjunction with traditional car services on either side of the flight. The company believes a trip from San Francisco’s Marina to downtown San Jose, normally two hours by car, could take just 15 minutes.
It’s not just long distances that could benefit. In July, Dubai is expected to launch its flying taxi service, using the EHang 184. It doesn’t go as far or as fast as the Lilium, though — with a cruise speed of 37 mph and a total flight time of around 25 minutes, the Dubai service is geared toward very short trips across the city.
Lilium could revolutionize this nascent market through increased range and speed. The company’s team of 40 designers and engineers is working to refine the prototype, with the end goal of a five-seater version with 36 engines, a wingspan of 32 feet and the same range and speed as the prototype.
The team faces an uphill struggle to maintain the same benefits as the two-seater version, though: Richard Pat Anderson, head of the Flight Research Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told Wired that plans to maintain the same specifications for a larger model are “definitely exceeding some fundamental math.”
RIDESHARING IN THE SKY
Way before Elon Musk planned to drill under Los Angeles to avoid traffic, several companies had already been toying with the idea of beating traffic by going over it. Indeed, flying cars have long been a part of science fiction, but they could soon become a part of our everyday reality. And once we have autonomous flying cars, it’s only a matter of time before we have autonomous flying taxis for those who prefer hitching a ride to owning one.
According to a report by the Associated Press, experts think flying taxis could arrive in the next 10 to 15 years. “In terms of what you can make fly in a reliable manner, the solution speed gateway that (computer) chips have gone through recently have literally opened the door to a whole new world of flying machine possibilities,” Charles Eastlake, an aerospace engineering professor at Embry-Riddle University, told the AP. “My best engineering guess is that people actually using autonomous air taxis in the next 10 or 15 years is possible, but definitely not certain. The challenges are big.”
IN BRIEF
Transportation experts believe autonomous flying taxis could be here in the next 10 to 15 years, but the challenges to their implementation are significant.
While numerous companies are working on the technology needed for such vehicles, we will also need to make sure the infrastructure is in place to support their usage.
RIDESHARING IN THE SKY
Way before Elon Musk planned to drill under Los Angeles to avoid traffic, several companies had already been toying with the idea of beating traffic by going over it. Indeed, flying cars have long been a part of science fiction, but they could soon become a part of our everyday reality. And once we have autonomous flying cars, it’s only a matter of time before we have autonomous flying taxis for those who prefer hitching a ride to owning one.
According to a report by the Associated Press, experts think flying taxis could arrive in the next 10 to 15 years. “In terms of what you can make fly in a reliable manner, the solution speed gateway that (computer) chips have gone through recently have literally opened the door to a whole new world of flying machine possibilities,” Charles Eastlake, an aerospace engineering professor at Embry-Riddle University, told the AP. “My best engineering guess is that people actually using autonomous air taxis in the next 10 or 15 years is possible, but definitely not certain. The challenges are big.”
IN THE WORKS
Certainly, recent developments in engineering have contributed greatly to bringing flying cars closer to reality. Still, there are other technical hurdles to overcome, and more still in order to develop flying vehicles that are autonomous. For one, there aren’t yet any flight versions of autonomous sensory systems found in self-driving cars. There’s also the challenge of battery weight, which is an issue even for current electric cars that stay on the ground — autonomous flying taxis would need much better, lighter batteries.
In addition to sorting out the technology, we’d also need ground infrastructure that would allow flying vehicles to operate unobstructed, with enough space for take-off and landing zones. “There’s no question we can build the vehicle,” MIT professor John Hansman, who advises the FAA, told the AP. “The big challenge is whether we can build a vehicle that would be allowed to operate in the places where people want to use it.”
That isn’t an insurmountable hurdle, though, as ridesharing company Uber already has infrastructure plans for a flying taxi service that relies on vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles. Indeed, they aren’t the only company thinking about this new era in travel. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is keen on delivering a prototype of its A3 Vahana this year, with plans to have it ready for production by 2020. Israeli tech firm Urban Aeronautics has already created prototypes of its Cormorant, a people-carrying drone that’s intended for military use and that can attain speeds of up to 185 km/h (115 mph), hover for an hour, and carry up to 1,100 pounds.
Apart from these, there are still others: the VTOL Lilium Jet; AeroMobil 3.0, which uses regular gasoline; Chinese drone-maker EHang’s 184 person-carrying drone; Joby Aviation’s all-electric VTOL S2; and the Zee VTOL car, which Google founder Larry Page was supposedly spotted in, just to name a few. Undoubtedly, with all these projects in the works, it’s clear that flying cars and autonomous flying taxis are coming. It’s just a matter of how soon we can be ready for them.
