Watch Lilium’s electric aircraft for ‘air taxi’ fly as they move toward production

Lilium Aviation has released new footage of its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and announced that it is preparing to move to production at a new facility.

The company claims that the Lilium Jet can achieve a range of “more than 300 km (186 miles) with a maximum cruising speed of 300 km/h.(186 mph).”

When they made their maiden flight in 2017, the German startup had a team of over 40 engineers working on the prototype.

A few months later, the secured $90 million in funding, including an investment from Daimler.

They have since been growing at a fast pace, and they now have a team of 350 people working to turn the development of the Lilium Jet into an electric air taxi service.

Lilium has now announced that its prototype “completed the first phase of flight testing, now flying at speeds exceeding 100 km/h.”

Today, they released this new footage of the aircraft in a new promotional video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lojpe3lUdFk

Lilium commented on the first phase of its test program:

Since its maiden flight, which featured a simple vertical takeoff and landing, the aircraft has been undertaking increasingly complex maneuvers and longer flights. Having successfully completed more than 100 different ground and flight tests, the first phase of testing culminated with a flight that saw the aircraft travel at speeds exceeding 100 km/h.

The company also said that the first phase also included “safety tests, including engine failures and flap failures, as well as fuse-blow-tests on the ground and in the air.”

The startup also announced that they opened their first manufacturing facility and it is soon going to be followed by a second one:

The first manufacturing facility, a 3,000-square-meter space located at the company’s headquarters, will soon be complemented by a second, much larger, facility which is already under construction at the same site. Combined, they will support Lilium’s aim of producing hundreds of aircraft a year by the time commercial services begin in 2025.

They have also hired several executives from established aircraft manufacturers, including from Airbus.

Quite a few other companies are developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with the goal to deliver air taxi services, but Lilium is one of the highest-profile companies with public test flights.

Yet they only plan to launch the services commercially in 2025.