Indeed, the slow speed flight dynamics certainly do indicate that this scaled prototype in the video was 25 kg

Some great pictures of it in a British newspaper site about a year ago.

And apparently it will be on sale in 2018

Lilium the world's first electric vertical take-off and landing jet | Daily Mail Online

One thing occurs to me - are those front pods or whatever they are called retractable into the front fuselage sides, as one photo implies?

If so, where are your legs?

Yeah, been asked before - when the "pods" retract;

1. Front seaters' legs get crushed;
2. Retractable front wheel assembly gets mangled; and
3. Machine pitches nose down due to the whole structure c.g. being in front of the lifting surface.

Reminds me of the old Tucker automobile, where he originally planned for front wheel fairings to turn with the wheels and thus have the headlights mounted on them follow the direction of travel, but had to settle for a single headlight in the centre of the bonnet that turned with the steering wheel.

That seems like a reasonable number, which should be quite achievable using the foam (either sheet or carved from a solid block) construction used for millions of RC planes. If you wanted to do a mock-up to show to potential investors, as well as having the ability to do demo flights, that would be a good way to start.

Stick a couple of big-ish (110 - 130mm) electric ducted fans in there (up to around 8kg thrust each at 6kW; 5kg would be more common in the cheaper models) and you should be able to fly that around very nicely - at least when there's no wind.

So who is digging a deep hole for themselves, Ppruners or Lilium?


Lilium Facebook post from co-founder Patrick Nathen,
"As a founder, I can guarantee on behalf of our amazing investors and all you people out there, we did NOT use CGI or a size scaled model. This is the original size of our previous two-seated concept."

Email from Marketing manager in response to edited video.
"I can confirm that it is the full scale 2-seater.
We are running a test flight program, which means, we are testing it more than once.
We can start and land anywhere, doesn´t have to be exact the same spot, right?
Best, Mareike

Mareike Mutzberg
communications manager"

A remote test flight, apparently not above 100 feet, on "private" property of a fly-by-wire craft, backed by ESA and funded by the founder of Skype is not far fetched. Especially since they were test flying several scale models throughout 2016, videos of which are on u tube.

The thing is just a drone on steroids so remote control is embedded in its DNA.
They plan for it to be autonomous, so there is less to be converted.

Sure, they have shot themselves in the foot by labelling the video a "maiden flight" when it is a glossy compilation of several flights. They seem reluctant to release a continuous unedited shot of a flight which would adress the scepticism that scale models were used.

But it would be very silly of lillium to further mislead the public by making the statements quoted above if they were not true.

Has anyone found a report from a journalist who eye-witnessed the test flights?

Ppruner scepticism up to a point (!) is encouraged, given the radical design and the "forward looking" specification and performance of the craft and the unsatisfactory presentation of the test flights.

Mickjoebill

It's a bit of a worry that the design team did not notice that small problem right at the start.
I expect the next announcement will be something like
"Yeah, that one was just the concept. The production version will have extra wings... and wheels.... and a big engine... and...err, lots of other stuff" :E

The airfield in Tussenhausen Germany can be viewed on Google Earth.
According to google earth the taxiway the craft lifted from is around 6.5 meters in width.
Video from a few angles indicates the wingspan of the lilium craft is a similar width to the taxiway.

So an extraordinary achievement if the craft has a wingspan of over 6 meters yet weights only 25kg:)

Mickjoebill

I wonder how it taxied from the hangar to the runway?

Well, either it will fly or it won't. If the above sceptics are right, and nothing beyond a scale model ever flies, we won't hear much more about it. If, on the other hand and in the fullness of time, a full size airworthy aircraft surprises us all with new and astounding technology, the above pruners will all have to eat humble pie. Stranger things have happened and time will tell.

This one looks a bit more like it will ... ummm ... take off?

Aurora Unveils New eVTOL Aircraft at Uber Elevate Summit

I don't believe the Firefly ever flew. Sorry for the response to an old post, I'm behind here.

I will say that anything will fly if you get the disk loading low enough. Asking about size and weight are entirely appropriate.

So a year after their claimed date for a manned flight they have managed instead to fly a large drone that looks like the concept but cannot carry out the functions of the concept. Certification in 2018? :rolleyes:

Electric drones doing VTOL is decades old news. The concept was for this thing to carry people and also the wings to fold away so it could drive along the highway. This "first test flight" was actually an RC model aircraft that could do neither. Boring.

According to their new timeline, first manned flights will take place in 2019 now. Well, I do remember the old one you´re referring to ;-)
Additionally, the new pictures don´t show the slightest chance of retractable "wings". Maybe they came across some serious physical issues with CG? On of the founders being an (inactive) glider pilot, I would have expected this encounter a few years earlier ;-)
What remains, is an electrical driven VTOL aircraft.
A five seater Lilium will presumably be bigger (in terms of wing span) than a comparable 5 PAX classical Heli in rotor diameter. I wonder, how they will get their "Lilium Pads" in downtown Manhattan...


But hey, the´ve got their investors, they seem to have some App (or at least some true image manipulation geeks).
Isn´t that all you´ll ever need in modern business?
:E


Thracian

For those that can be bothered, there's a different video on Liliums Facebook page which shows a couple of different camera angles and some extra detail.

As certain posters seem to be utterly convinced the whole thing is a scam, I'll leave them to find it themselves...