Lilium

When we last looked at air taxi startup Lilium, it was in administration and had laid off most of its employees on December 20. Now it seems there was a Christmas miracle on December 24, with investors throwing out a US$206 million lifeline.

German eVTOL startup Lilium has ceased operations as of this week – sunsetting a decade-long effort funded with over $1 billion to build electric air taxis, with nary a single aircraft delivered.

Seven years after its first test flight, German electric air taxi manufacturer Lilium has run out of funding, and filed for insolvency for its two subsidiaries. It failed to raise an emergency injection of $54 million to continue its operations.

Got a pilot's license? That and a fat bank account will let you take off vertically then soar horizontally with Lilium's sleek electric-powered craft, now on sale in the US market. The offering marks the first private availability of eVTOLs.

Piloting a cruise-capable eVTOL aircraft will be unlike flying anything that's come before it, thanks to fully digital fly-by-wire flight control systems. We jumped in Lilium's motion-rig simulator to learn how the system feels from the cockpit.

On a recent trip to Europe, Loz Blain visited Lilium HQ outside Munich to see a spectacular full-size eVTOL mockup, fly the Lilium Jet in a motion rig simulator, tour the premises and meet the team. First stop: co-founder Daniel Wiegand.

With tiny, ducted electric "jets" instead of exposed propellers, Lilium's eVTOL aircraft looks incredible, but it'll place a unique strain on its batteries. Lilium has invested millions into a company that makes cells it believes are up to the task.

German eVTOL company Lilium has released test flight video of its stunning Phoenix 2 air taxi prototype making full transitions from vertical takeoff, to horizontal cruise flight, some turning maneuvers and a vertical landing – with full camera audio.

The prospect of a flying taxi service like that imagined by Lilium hinges on the ability of these aircraft to seamlessly transition from vertical to horizontal flight, and the startup has just demonstrated a key element of this functionality.

New render images and details have emerged on our favorite Chinese "I can't believe it's not Lilium" eVTOL air taxi project. The Pantuo Pantala Concept H, out of Shanghai, might look like the Lilium, but it promises to hit faster cruise speeds.

Lilium's eVTOL is vastly different to anything else in the air taxi world, using 36 small ducted fans in place of larger rotors. One of the key advantages, says Lilium, is the reduced noise signature – and now we get to hear it for the first time.

Lilium has become the latest eVTOL manufacturer to announce a significant provisional aircraft sale – this time, a 220-unit, billion-dollar deal with Azul in Brazil, which values the electric seven-seat Lilium Jets at around US$4 million apiece.