Lillium - VTOL all-electric plane

[dauger]

An all-electric two-seater vertical take off and landing personal aircraft:

Personal aircraft aiming to take off from your home

Lillium: The Private VTOL Plane Of A Quieter Future

"The European Space Agency is incubating a new kind of aircraft. ... The planned two-seater will be all-electric, built for personal use, and, thanks to pivoting engines, it can take off from helipads instead of runways."

It's a vehicle, and it's electric, so it belongs in the Electric Vehicle Forum, right?

 

[mhpr262]

I'm not expecting much, performancewise. Small ducted fans are notoriously inefficient, especially at low speeds like lifting off and landing. There is a reason a helicopter usually has just one giant rotor. Expect a flight time measured in minutes at 250mph, not hours. With the wings that far back I presume the passenger cell of the plane is designed as a lifting body?

 

[Brando]

I'm not expecting much, performancewise. Small ducted fans are notoriously inefficient, especially at low speeds like lifting off and landing. There is a reason a helicopter usually has just one giant rotor. Expect a flight time measured in minutes at 250mph, not hours. With the wings that far back I presume the passenger cell of the plane is designed as a lifting body?

 

[Kandiru]

From the 1950ies on SciFi magazines on both sides of the Iron Curtain have been obsessed with the mass commute fliers.

The ugly truth is that you would need an FAA license and an airport.

 

[voyager]

I'm not expecting much, performancewise. Small ducted fans are notoriously inefficient, especially at low speeds like lifting off and landing. There is a reason a helicopter usually has just one giant rotor. Expect a flight time measured in minutes at 250mph, not hours. With the wings that far back I presume the passenger cell of the plane is designed as a lifting body?

Those Lilium guys graduated from Technical University Munich. Talked to one of the professors there, and he could not understand how Lilium managed to sin that severely against one of the most fundamental principles regarding rotor efficiency, and... how Lilium managed to convince investors to put millions in the company. My only guess is that the final product will show us something which will deviate mega from the small ducts prototype.

 

[dpeilow]

Finally the German media picks up that this might be -err- difficult to achieve... Lufttaxi-Startup Lilium: Zu schön, um wahr zu sein? - DER SPIEGEL - Wissenschaft

 

[voyager]

Oh Dear! Funny (not actually) is that the eVTOL community already knew. I know because I am member of AHS.
See what I wrote in 2018.
But nobody seems to want to bust someone' s dream and pitch,
not to let the collective goal of zero-emission transformative flight get a bad rap (or is it rep?)...

 

[dpeilow]

One of the German aeronautical magazines but these concerns to one of Lilium's investors and got this very aggressive response Lilium Jet: Fragen an Investor Frank Thelen

 

[voyager]

I noticed that the Lilium thing hasn't been picked up by the main internet media, like Wired and Electrek.
You can honestly say: I have read it firstly on the Tesla forum.

There is more technical info (how's your German?)
Urban Air Mobility: Liliums Scheinwelt
file:///home/chronos/u-5c8637a518353ef8b32b2fa998b8064844573c9d/MyFiles/Downloads/aerokurier_Konzeptberechnung_Lilium_Jet.pdf

 

[Eno Deb]

They need to be way more transparent. They keep posting fancy Youtube videos of tests with cool background music, but no outsider has yet been allowed to attend one of their tests. We don't even know what this thing sounds like ...

 

[voyager]

They need to be way more transparent. They keep posting fancy Youtube videos of tests with cool background music, but no outsider has yet been allowed to attend one of their tests. We don't even know what this thing sounds like ...

The sound? Well, what do you think? 36 high-revving small-diameter thrusters together will probably sound like a jet engine. So, that's the other thing they need to fear for: being banned because of exceeding noise levels.

 

[dpeilow]

I was actually at the airfield where they do the tests before Christmas. I could see some white aircraft peeping out of a hangar and asked my hosts if it was possible to get in their, but they said Lillium was actually based in a small building by themselves on the opposite side of the field and no one really interacts with them.

 

[Eno Deb]

The sound? Well, what do you think? 36 high-revving small-diameter thrusters together will probably sound like a jet engine. So, that's the other thing they need to fear for: being banned because of exceeding noise levels.

Yeah, that was kind of my point.

 

[Kandiru]

The only practical solution will be solar touring sailplanes, like this one:

Catch a thermal > glide > run the motor > catch a thermal, repeat. The cycle repeats while the solar panels are charging and providing immediate power.

The weight of the batteries along with cold conditioning needs is too much to sustain long flights.
Pipistrel makes them but only for training purposes around airports.

 

[voyager]

The only practical solution will be solar touring sailplanes, like this one:

Solar cells will never be able to provide the bursts of energy needed for vertical take off, and after the level flight, the vertical landing.
Lilium was featured in the last edition of the AHS magazine. It only brushed over some of the questions and doubts experts have with regard to its power delivery, the use of small ducts and the range. Those remain unanswered.

 

[dpeilow]

One of two Lilium prototypes has burned in a fire: Elektro-Flugtaxi: Einer von zwei Prototypen abgebrannt