Like many of the aircraft featured in this article, the Lilium Jet is a VTOL, which stands for vertical takeoff and landing. The Lilium aircraft has been designed by renowned automotive designer Frank Stephenson, who was responsible for the new BMW-owned Mini Cooper, the current Fiat 500, the Ferrari F430 and the McLaren P1, among others. It is hoped the aircraft will be used to replace cross-city taxi journeys, with Lilium claiming it will eventually cost about the same, as a taxi, but complete journeys four times as quickly. In its latest guise, shown off in May 2019, the Jet is powered by 36 electric motors and can fly as far as 300 km (186 miles) in as little as 60 minutes. Perhaps the most high-profile startup in the air taxi industry, Lilium was founded in Germany in 2015 and is working on an aircraft called the Jet. The Lilium Jet is powered by 36 electric motors Here is a quick look, updated in December 2020, at the biggest players in the industry, and the vehicles they hope will unlock a whole new transportation sector – one which Morgan Stanley claimed in 2018 could be worth $1.5 trillion a year by 2040. But, with obvious parallels with the dream of a fully autonomous car, claims of the flying car being just a few years away are starting to repeat themselves, and some early pioneers have gone quiet. Startups like Lilium are competing against aviation giants like Boeing and Airbus, as well as car makers like Audi and Aston Martin. Just a few years ago, the idea of hailing an electric, autonomous flying vehicle via a smartphone app, like a car from Uber or Lyft, then have it whisk you over congested city streets, dropping you at your destination a few minutes later, sounded like pure science fiction.īut what was once considered preposterous is edging closer to reality, as companies large and small, new and old, race to be the first.
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