Andrew Strachan appointed Lilium’s Chief Test Pilot as fifth generational demonstrator arrives in Spain to continue flight testing

Lil­i­um has con­firmed one of its fifth-gen­er­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tors — known as PHX2 — has arrived at the ATLAS Flight Test Cen­ter in Spain, where the com­pa­ny will con­tin­ue its flight test cam­paign at high­er speeds and over longer dis­tances.

The next phase will expand the test­ing capa­bil­i­ties beyond Ger­many and is boost­ed by the appoint­ment of Andrew Stra­chan as Lil­i­um’s new Chief Test Pilot. He brings more than three decades of expe­ri­ence as an air­craft test pilot and pri­or to join­ing Lil­i­um, served in the UK’s Roy­al Air Force and was also Chief Test Pilot at Leonar­do Heli­copters.

Alas­tair McIn­tosh, Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer at Lil­i­um, said: “We’re excit­ed for this next high-speed test­ing phase to begin in Spain and to wel­come new Chief Test Pilot Andy Stra­chan who is an incred­i­ble addi­tion to the Lil­i­um team.”

Lil­i­um analysed mul­ti­ple poten­tial loca­tions in Spain for key test con­di­tions includ­ing land topol­o­gy, weath­er, and facil­i­ties before con­firm­ing ATLAS, which pro­vides opti­mal infra­struc­ture and enables the air­craft to fly over a large, unpop­u­lat­ed area while tran­si­tion­ing ful­ly into high-speed wing-borne flight. The mod­ern facil­i­ties and sup­port from CATEC (Cen­ter for Advanced Aero­space Tech­nolo­gies) has been instru­men­tal in set­ting Lil­i­um up for a suc­cess­ful flight test cam­paign.

Com­ment­ing on his new role, Stra­chan added: “I’m thrilled to join Lil­i­um at such an excit­ing moment in the company’s growth. As some­one who has been influ­enced by avi­a­tion since child­hood, it’s inspir­ing to be part of a com­pa­ny dri­ving the next phase of sus­tain­able, aero­nau­ti­cal tech­nol­o­gy.”