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Lilium’s five-seater air taxi can be seen hovering over an airfield in southern Germany in new images released by the company.
Lilium
German aeronautical start-up Lilium signed an agreement with the city of Orlando, Florida on Wednesday for the launch of the first American transport hub for its flying taxis.
The Munich-based group plans to build a so-called “vertiport” in Lake Nona, a futuristic smart city near Orlando International Airport. He partnered with local real estate developer Tavistock Development to design and build the project.
Lilium’s ultimate vision is to deploy a network of air taxis to various cities, with an app to hail vehicles in the same way Uber does. It is one of the many companies that build drone-type planes that take off and land vertically like a helicopter.
The company says its all-electric five-seat Lilium Jet, which debuted last year, is expected to reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour – or 186 miles per hour. He managed to reach 100 kilometers per hour during a demonstration last year.
The aircraft, which is remotely piloted from the ground, has two parallel wings equipped with 36 electric motors that face down on takeoff and then tilt back for horizontal flight.
Lilium plans to prepare its US transportation system for commercial flights by 2025. Its vertiport locations are subject to approval by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Florida Department of Transportation and other regulatory agencies.
When asked how much the flights would cost at launch, Remo Gerber, Managing Director of Lilium, said it would be comparable to a ‘business class’ flight.
“Over time, we are very committed to creating a more affordable mode of transportation,” Gerber said in a virtual press conference Wednesday. “We sometimes even go so far as to say that five to ten years after launch it is quite conceivable that it boils down to a price similar to driving your own car.
The project is expected to create more than 100 jobs in Orlando, Lilium said.
The Orlando hub will mark Lilium’s second worldwide – the first was announced for Germany in September. Lilium is a well-funded startup, having received investments totaling $ 375 million from Chinese tech giant Tencent, Tesla’s top investor Baillie Gifford, and venture capital firm Atomico.
Along with Lilium, several companies are vying for a role in the nascent air taxi space – EHang from Uber China and German company Volocopter, to name a few examples.
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