The personal aircraft-for-hire slated to serve many Florida cities from Orlando’s Lake Nona starting in 2025 isn’t the DeLorean from Back to the Future or Blade Runner’s sky cabs, but it is unlike aircraft seen even in sci-fi movies.
The Lilium Jet’s engines – think of them as super powerful and complex leaf blowers that run on batteries – are embedded within the trailing edges of the aircraft’s front and back wings, which makes the wings look like saw blades.
To take off, the wings' rear edges tilt down, giving the airplane the ability rise vertically. For forward movement, the wing edges gradually sweep straight back.
“It’s entirely battery driven. It’s an aircraft that has 36 engines, and it takes off from a similar surface as a helicopter, with all of its engines pointing down. And then very, very smoothly, as if it was on rails, it can transition into forward flight,” said Remo Gerber, Lilium’s chief operating officer.
The Germany-based Lilium GmbH officially announced on Wednesday its partnership with the city of Orlando and Lake Nona’s developer, Tavistock Group. It could be the first such base in the United States. With 600 workers, the 5-year-old company has received $375 million from investors.
Using a ride-share model, passengers would use a phone app to reserve a trip within Florida and catch their flight at Lake Nona’s vertiport. That’s the term used for a base designed for vertical arrivals and departures. Estimated to cost $25 million, Lake Nona’s would have two flight pads and charging spaces for eight aircraft.
“I suspect after today, most Americans will immediately start dreaming about how vertiports will change their world, their business meeting and maybe even their date nights,” said Rasesh Thakkar, Tavistock’s senior managing director, during Wednesday’s announcement.
The Lilium Jet is “a completely new aircraft,” Gerber said.
The power output of each engine is independently adjustable as are each of the wings' tilting edges.
“Traditional control surfaces like tails, rudders or ailerons become obsolete, which saves weight and complexity,” Lilium states in its technical presentations.
The Lilium Jet will seat four passengers and a pilot. But, as with ride-share cars, companies are pushing hard for autonomous capabilities.
Initially, the cost of flying on a Lilium jet to a Florida city would be similar to premium airline fare to the same city. Gerber said that within five to 10 years of operations, prices for a Lilium flight may decline to what it costs to drive a car for the same distance.
Ben Weaver, Tavistock managing director, said one of the reasons for partnering with Lilium is the ability of its aircraft. Lilium expects its jets to travel as far as 185 miles within one hour on a single charge.
“The one-of-a-kind capabilities of Lilium with regard to high-speed and range to cover the entire state is why this manufacturer was if interest for us,” Weaver said.
While other, leading developers of sky cabs are focusing on transportation within a major, metropolitan area, Lilium plans to on link urban, suburban and rural areas. The company is negotiating now with other Florida cities to open more vertiports.
Brian Garrett-Glaser, managing editor of the online publication eVTOL.com and a veteran in covering the emerging vertical-takeoff-and-landing industry, said the technology for such aircraft began to look promising about a decade ago.
Boosted by Uber’s arrival, the race to establish sky-taxi service began about three to four years ago, boosted by with dozens of start-ups, ranging from garage operations to major corporations worldwide. They have lured top talent and billions of dollars from tech firms, automakers and aircraft manufacturers, Garrett-Glaser said.
“In reality, there are probably 10 to 15 serious entrants in the air-taxi race,” he said.
Leaders include Joby Aviation and Kitty Hawk Corp. in California, Beta Technologies in Vermont and Lilium and Volocopter of Germany. Most companies are focusing on aircraft that resemble an oversize drone or have a blend of wings and propeller engines that tilt.
With its unique design, the Lilium Jet has drawn some skepticism.
“But they clearly have attracted investors who have faith in what they are doing,” Garrett-Glaser said.
With the Lilium Jet in test flights, yet to come is certification by European authorities and the Federal Aviation Administration. Garrett-Glaser said the FAA has announced its expectation to issue certifications for electric, VTOL aircraft as soon as 2023.
“That said, these aircraft are very new, very complicated. I would not be surprised to see that timeline slip,” he said.
On Monday, Orlando’s City Council agreed to give nearly $1 million in tax breaks over 10 years to Lilium as incentive for creating 143 jobs at its 56,000 square-foot vertiport in Lake Nona.
Sky taxi service at Lake Nona would be near Orlando’s airport, which had been the nation’s 10th busiest prior to the pandemic. The airport also has a train station, where the upscale, higher-speed Brightline Trains is to begin service from South Florida.
“New transportation innovation has lots of unanswered questions and electric, vertical takeoff and landing is no different,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “No one knows exactly what it’s going to look like 10 to 20 years from now.”
With investments of “billions of dollars pouring in,” sky-taxi service is “absolutely not a flight of fantasy,” Tavistock’s Weaver said.
“If you drive a 200 mile ring around Orlando, you can touch almost every major city in the state of Florida … the stated goal is to make this mobility service available for anybody, anytime, anywhere.”
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