Page 28 - Green Builder Magazine Jul-Aug 2021

Lilium An electric aircraft could be a cleaner answer

to short-range, city to city travel.

S 2.5% 1,000
T

A of worldwide pollution green aircraft
T
Percentage of carbon emissions Number of electric battery-powered
S
generated by current aircraft planes expect to be in the air by 2027

N “BACK TO THE FUTURE,” the flying car used by rudder, no propellers, no gearbox and only one moving part
Marty McFly and Emmett “Doc” Brown eventually runs in the engine contributes to the safety and affordability of the
on garbage instead of plutonium. We’re not quite there aircraft,” notes Lilium CEO and co-founder Daniel Wiegand
I yet, but we’re getting pretty close. German startup Lilium on the company’s website. “It has also allowed the design
is crafting an electric battery-powered, seven-seat aircraft team to focus its efforts on creating a magical customer
capable of traveling 150 miles at about 175 miles per hour, experience in the cabin, from panoramic windows to gull-
and able to land and take off vertically, like a helicopter or wing doors.”
fighter jet. Three dozen low-noise electric ducted turbo fan engines
The plane—which has seen four prototypes since the supply the Lilium Jet’s cruising power. At 2,000 horsepower
Munich-based company’s launch in 2015—will provide total, they’re powerful enough to take the plane up to 10,000
people with a fast, cost-effective way to travel between smaller feet. They’re quiet enough to allow the aircraft to meet most
cities and rural areas. It will also be emissions-free, a huge noise ordinances and fly at low altitudes over residential
improvement over conventional air travel, which accounts neighborhoods—the company says you can’t hear the
for 2.5 percent of carbon emissions generated worldwide, engines if the plane’s flying at as low as 1,000 feet. This is
according to data from the International Energy Agency. a key factor in the vehicle’s use as an air taxi, according to
“The simplicity of the aircraft design, with no tail, no Lilium officials.

A new Fab Four. Lilium’s founders, (left to right), Sebastian Born, Patrick
High times. Lilium’s electric jet can shuttle passengers from city to city, or rural Nathen, Daniel Weigand and Matthias Meiner, are ready to prove that
locale to locale, within a 150-mile radius, in about an hour. electric planes have come of age. Here, they’re shown with an early
COURTESY OF LILIUM prototype from 2019. COURTESY OF LILIUM
26 GREEN BUILDER July/August 2021 www.greenbuildermedia.com