Forget Uber Copter. Lilium wants to be your regional mode of travel starting in 2025, with its five-seater electric airplanes.
On Tuesday, the Germany-based company showed footage of its 36-engine plane taking off vertically before transitioning to other, more complex maneuvers. During its maiden flight early this year, the fixed-winged craft simply took off.
Now it's moving on from vertical flight to level flight. The jet is somewhere between a commercial airplane and a battery-powered drone and is officially labeled as an e-VTOL, or electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle.
In the latest flight outside of Munich, Germany, the Lilium Jet flew faster than 60 mph during a remote-controlled test and can now endure more testing at higher speeds. The planes will eventually fly up to 186 mph with enough battery to last about an hour of flight at that speed. They won't go above 10,000 feet and are intended to connect smaller cities outside big metro areas for shorter, quick trips.
CEO and co-founder Daniel Wiegand said in a phone call to Mashable that showing this early footage before the planes have passengers aboard is a way to make electric air travel more approachable.
"It's real and it's going to come and it works," he said.
Plus, it helps convince skeptics that the company's 2025 launch timeline is on track with testing underway.
A new facility in southern Germany also recently opened, dedicated to building the flying taxis.
By 2025, Lilium plans to have hundreds of its planes built and flying out of locations around the world.
Topics Electric Vehicles
