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Lilium Jet’s Electrifying Progress in Power System Testing

Lil­i­um Jet’s elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tem suc­cess­ful­ly com­pletes the first phase of inte­gra­tion test­ing. This achieve­ment marks a cru­cial step toward the Lil­i­um Jet’s cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and even­tu­al com­mer­cial use.

Lil­i­um Jet’s Elec­tri­cal Pow­er Sys­tem Takes a Giant Leap

Lil­i­um, a pio­neer in elec­tric avi­a­tion, has achieved a major mile­stone in the devel­op­ment of its ground­break­ing Lil­i­um Jet. The com­pa­ny recent­ly announced the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of the first phase of inte­gra­tion test­ing for the Lil­i­um Jet’s elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tem. This piv­otal achieve­ment brings the Lil­i­um Jet clos­er to obtain­ing flight con­di­tions approval and type-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, align­ing with the strin­gent EASA SC-VTOL stan­dards, and solid­i­fy­ing its place as a leader in the Region­al Air Mobil­i­ty (RAM) sec­tor.

A State-of-the-Art Test­ing Facil­i­ty

To ensure the Lil­i­um Jet’s elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tem meets the high­est stan­dards of safe­ty and per­for­mance, Lil­i­um has built a ded­i­cat­ed lab­o­ra­to­ry at its head­quar­ters near Munich. This cut­ting-edge facil­i­ty metic­u­lous­ly repli­cates the Lil­i­um Jet’s pow­er­train, from the bat­tery pack to the engine, allow­ing engi­neers to con­duct com­pre­hen­sive tests in a con­trolled envi­ron­ment. The lab also incor­po­rates low-volt­age sys­tems that pow­er the air­craft’s avion­ics and cab­in sys­tems, onboard ener­gy iso­la­tion units for enhanced safe­ty, and a ful­ly oper­a­tional charg­ing sta­tion.

Sim­u­lat­ing Flight and Gath­er­ing Cru­cial Data

Lil­i­um engi­neers uti­lize cus­tom-designed soft­ware to sim­u­late var­i­ous flight pro­files, run tests, and col­lect real-time data. This data will be invalu­able in demon­strat­ing the air­craft’s safe­ty and com­pli­ance with strin­gent type-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion require­ments set forth by air­wor­thi­ness author­i­ties. Addi­tion­al­ly, the lab pro­vides a secure envi­ron­ment to intro­duce faults into the sys­tem and assess its resilience, fur­ther ensur­ing its robust­ness in real-world sce­nar­ios.

Col­lab­o­ra­tion and Tech­no­log­i­cal Prowess

The devel­op­ment and con­struc­tion of this state-of-the-art test­ing facil­i­ty were made pos­si­ble through a col­lab­o­ra­tion between Lil­i­um and EN4, a lead­ing Ital­ian sup­pli­er spe­cial­iz­ing in advanced test­ing solu­tions for var­i­ous indus­tries. The lab lever­ages cut­ting-edge soft­ware and hard­ware pro­vid­ed by NI (for­mer­ly Nation­al Instru­ments), ensur­ing the utmost accu­ra­cy and flex­i­bil­i­ty in test­ing and mea­sure­ment.

Voic­es of Suc­cess

Stephen Vel­la­cott, Lil­i­um’s Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer, expressed his excite­ment about this sig­nif­i­cant accom­plish­ment. “With the com­ple­tion of the first phase of elec­tri­cal pow­er inte­gra­tion and ver­i­fi­ca­tion test­ing at our ded­i­cat­ed lab, we have once again reached a crit­i­cal mile­stone in the Lil­i­um Jet devel­op­ment,” he stat­ed. “This lab allows us to test flights, charg­ing, and sim­u­late fail­ure sce­nar­ios, ensur­ing our pow­er­train meets the most strin­gent avi­a­tion safe­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty stan­dards.”  

Gian­lu­ca Franchi, EN4’s Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Direc­tor, also shared his pride in the col­lab­o­ra­tion. “We are proud to have part­nered with Lil­i­um in build­ing this cut­ting-edge test rig,” he remarked. “Thanks also to NI’s test and mea­sure­ment tech­nolo­gies, we were able to pro­vide a com­pre­hen­sive solu­tion for Lilium’s Elec­tri­cal Pow­er Sys­tem Lab, ensur­ing extreme­ly high accu­ra­cy in the mea­sure­ments pro­vid­ed while also main­tain­ing oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty.”

Pro­duc­tion and Test­ing in Tan­dem

In par­al­lel with the elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tem test­ing, Lil­i­um is steadi­ly pro­gress­ing with the pro­duc­tion of the first Lil­i­um Jets. These air­craft will be instru­men­tal in the Lil­i­um Jet type-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram. The first jet will be used exclu­sive­ly for ground test­ing, while the sec­ond jet will make its his­toric first manned flight.

A His­to­ry of Inno­va­tion

Lil­i­um’s jour­ney towards rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing air trav­el began in 2015. Since then, the com­pa­ny has dili­gent­ly devel­oped and test­ed mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions of tech­nol­o­gy demon­stra­tors, refin­ing the core tech­nol­o­gy sub­sys­tems that will pow­er the Lil­i­um Jet. Addi­tion­al­ly, two of Lil­i­um’s Phoenix test air­craft, full-scale 5‑seater pro­to­types, have under­gone exten­sive flight test­ing in Spain, show­cas­ing the Lil­i­um Jet’s flight physics and tech­nol­o­gy.

The Future Takes Flight

With the suc­cess­ful inte­gra­tion test­ing of its elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tem, Lil­i­um is paving the way for a sus­tain­able and acces­si­ble future in avi­a­tion. The Lil­i­um Jet, with its zero oper­at­ing emis­sions, promis­es to trans­form region­al air trav­el, pro­vid­ing a clean­er and more effi­cient mode of trans­porta­tion for both peo­ple and goods. As Lil­i­um con­tin­ues to push the bound­aries of inno­va­tion, the world eager­ly awaits the Lil­i­um Jet’s cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and com­mer­cial launch.

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(Images: Lil­i­um / EPSL)

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