Lilium eVTOL Completes Main Wing Transition

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Lilium announced last week that its Phoenix 2 technology demonstrator has achieved main wing transition during flight testing. According to the company, the eVTOL jet remained stable and behaved as predicted during the shift from hover to wing-borne flight. The company says its flight test campaign, which is scheduled to continue throughout the summer, will now focus on expanding the vehicle’s flight envelope and include transition of the forward canards and high-speed flights.

“Main wing transition is a huge step forward on our path to launch and it validates our Flight Dynamics Model,” said Matthias Meiner, Lilium co-founder and Phoenix chief engineer. “Full credit goes to the outstanding Lilium team who worked so hard to get us here, and who remain laser-focused on the rest of the Flight Test Campaign.”

Lilium began flight testing a two-seat eVTOL jet prototype in 2017 followed by a five-seat model in 2019. The company introduced the seven-seat version in April of last year, noting that it had received a CRI-A01 certification basis from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the model. For the seven-seat Lilium Jet, Lilium is targeting a top speed of up to 300 km/h (162 knots) and planning for it to be capable of routes between 40 and 200 km (22-108 NM) at launch with a goal of eventually extending the range to trips of up to 500 km (270 NM).