The European aviation safety agency, EASA, has granted German air taxi firm Lilium the "Design and Organization Award" - a major milestone for the industry. This authorization allows Lilium to develop and operate its electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles across the world. For years, the sector has been aiming to make these vehicles commercially viable.
Lilium, a German air taxi firm, announced Monday that they have been granted "Design Organization Approval" by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. This special condition license enables the company to design and produce its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft without the need for formal rules to be in place. The approval is "effectively a license to operate" for Lilium, as stated by Alastair McIntosh, the firm's Chief Technology Officer and Head of Design Organization. He expressed the company's excitement to commercialize the Lilium Jet in a statement. Luc Tytgat, Acting Executive Director of the EU Agency, offered his congratulations and highlighted the importance of safeguarding the environment, ensuring high safety standards, and avoiding any barriers to entering the market. This approval is a key milestone for the industry - with years of hard work put into making these vehicles ready for commercialization.
Fiction has been full of flying cars for decades, from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "The Jetsons" to "Blade Runner." Despite billions of dollars invested by venture capitalists and technologists, tangible success in this area has been limited. Lilium Jet, founded in 2015 by four friends from the Technical University of Munich, is hoping to launch commercial flights by 2025, focusing on domestic, intercity travel. The aircraft can travel 300 km on a single charge, the equivalent of London-Manchester in the UK. Whilst Lilium faces competitors such as Boeing, Airbus, and Volocopter (a German start-up developing a vertical take-off and landing air taxi), this has not deterred the company from its goal.
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