Originally Posted by
sandringham1
Can someone explain what is meant by this statement by Lilium, I tried a search on Helicopter footprint and the only references are to a noise footprint.
https://ir.lilium.com/techfaq
'In the Lilium Jet we are using electric ducted fans for propulsion. The advantage of the ducted fans is that they are much smaller than open propellers to lift the same weight of an aircraft. Or in technical terms - they can operate in high disc loads. The consequence of this is that VTOL aircraft using ducted fans need less ground footprint for a given weight and passenger (PAX) capacity of the aircraft. This in turn creates the potential to scale the aircraft to higher PAX and take-off weight for a given size of landing infrastructure'
footprint in this context just means the physical surface area required. They are saying for any given area, they will be able use an aircraft with a greater payload.