Astronics Corporation to develop and design the Lilium Jet’s electrical power distribution system

Lil­i­um has select­ed Astron­ics Cor­po­ra­tion to design, devel­op, and build the Lil­i­um Jet’s elec­tri­cal pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem.

Pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion units play a crit­i­cal role with­in the Lil­i­um Jet’s inno­v­a­tive elec­tri­cal pow­er sys­tem. Astron­ics is a lead­ing provider of advanced tech­nolo­gies for glob­al aero­space, defense, and oth­er mis­sion-crit­i­cal indus­tries, and will be respon­si­ble for the sec­ondary pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion units (SPDUs) and charg­ing pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion units (CPDUs).

Each Lil­i­um Jet will be equipped with two SPDUs and one CPDU. SPDUs are respon­si­ble for high volt­age (1000 VDC) to low volt­age (28 VDC) con­ver­sion and for low volt­age dis­tri­b­u­tion and pro­tec­tion. Com­pact and light weight, the SPDUs ensure a reli­able sup­ply of pow­er from the bat­ter­ies to the aircraft’s crit­i­cal sys­tems, includ­ing flight con­trols, avion­ics, nav­i­ga­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, sen­sors, inter­nal and exter­nal lights, and pas­sen­ger com­fort.

The CPDU man­ages the bat­tery charg­ing oper­a­tion, as well as pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al and dis­sim­i­lar sources for high volt­age to low volt­age pow­er con­ver­sion and low volt­age pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion, which min­i­mizes com­mon-cause fail­ure modes between the CPDU and SPDU. It also pro­vides an addi­tion­al lay­er of air­craft safe­ty by mon­i­tor­ing insu­la­tion, detect­ing, and report­ing short cir­cuit risks across the sys­tem.

The sup­pli­er agree­ment fol­lows over a year of col­lab­o­ra­tive work between the two com­pa­nies and marks a fur­ther key mile­stone in the indus­tri­al­iza­tion of the Lil­i­um Jet.

Mar­tin Schuebel, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent Pro­cure­ment at Lil­i­um, said: “Astron­ics is our ide­al part­ner for this very impor­tant com­po­nent of our air­craft. It is our inten­tion to col­lab­o­rate with the best aero­space sup­pli­ers and lever­age their exper­tise.

“Astron­ics’ exper­tise is unique, and their col­lab­o­ra­tive approach makes them a per­fect match for us. The part­ner­ship will also help pave the way for the com­ing indus­tri­al ramp-up.”

Astron­ics is one of the lead­ing Tier 1 aero­space sup­pli­ers in its field, pro­vid­ing inno­v­a­tive pow­er, light­ing, and con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tions for air­craft includ­ing major com­mer­cial air­craft OEMs such as Air­bus, Boe­ing, and Embraer. Astron­ics also offers com­plete design, inte­gra­tion, and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion ser­vices. The com­pa­ny leads many indus­try work­ing groups in its field and is a leader for high volt­age pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion in avi­a­tion.

Jon Neal, Pres­i­dent of Astron­ics Advanced Elec­tron­ic Sys­tems, said: “Astron­ics is thrilled to announce Lil­i­um as a launch cus­tomer for our Core­Pow­er® high volt­age prod­ucts designed for the More Elec­tric Air­craft and eVTOL plat­forms. 

“This part­ner­ship demon­strates the flex­i­bil­i­ty of our prod­ucts and our close col­lab­o­ra­tion with our cus­tomers.  Astron­ics is excit­ed to join Lil­i­um in being a part of the evo­lu­tion of avi­a­tion mov­ing towards clean­er, more sus­tain­able, and acces­si­ble modes of trans­porta­tion.”