ESA has shown a prototype of the private electric tiltrotor Lilium Bashny.Net

Startapovskaya company with headquarters in the business incubator of the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed the world's first prototype of a personal electric tiltrotor (aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing) for private transport. Double aircraft is intended to pave the way for widespread use of simple, quiet and environmentally friendly aircraft, and a commercial version ready to be released to the market already in 2018.

"Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life - says Daniel Vigend (Daniel Wiegand) CEO and one of the four founders of the company. - We will build an aircraft that can take off and land vertically and does not require complex and costly infrastructure and airports. And to reduce noise and pollution levels, we use electric motors, which can also be used in the vicinity of urban areas. »




Founded in February 2015 by four engineers and PhD from the Technical University of Munich in Germany, Lilium company has proven the viability of the concept on a few smaller versions of the apparatus and is currently working on their first full ultralight elektrosamolet.

The aircraft will be equipped with rotating double-contour turbofan engines. Due to this it will need to take off area the size of 15 × 15 meters without any special infrastructure. Takeoff tiltrotor can climb to a height of three kilometers and reach speeds of up to 400 kilometers per hour.





To feed electric Lilium are batteries with charging option from the usual outlets. One charge is enough for a flight range of up to 500 kilometers. A large number of engines and batteries should improve the safety of the aircraft.

Among the features of the future tiltrotor called joystick control and touchscreen satellite navigation, retractable landing gear, large trunk, the doors of the "gull wing" and panoramic windows. It is expected that the price and the cost of vehicle operation will be much lower than that of modern private jets and helicopters. In everyday life, electric aircraft should be replaced by the owner of the car.





Currently being tested reduced unmanned prototypes. Release of the full-size UAV is scheduled for summer 2016, the first manned flight - for 2017, and the full completion of the development, preparation for licensing and industrial production - by 2018.