Lilium Aviation has announced its Lilium Jet ‘Eagle’ electrical VTOL prototype successfully completed its maiden test flight series in the skies above Bavaria, Germany, on April 20. The two-seater Eagle executed a range of complex maneuvers, including its signature mid-air transition from hover mode to wing-borne forward flight.
The company says it has solved some of the toughest engineering challenges in aviation to get to this point and that the successful test flight program shows that Lilium’s ground-breaking technical design works exactly as designed.
Lilium announced it is now developing a larger, five-seat version of its Lilium Jet, designed for on-demand air taxi and ridesharing services. It estimates a typical journey will be faster than by car – with a greater advantage over automobiles in busy cities.
A flight from Manhattan to New York’s JFK Airport will take around five minutes says Lilium, compared with the 55 minutes it could take in a car.
April 27, 2017
