Lilium Engages Aernnova to Design Lilium Jet’s Propulsion Mounting System

Lil­i­um has select­ed lead­ing aero­space com­po­nent man­u­fac­tur­er Aern­no­va to col­lab­o­rate on the design of its propul­sion mount­ing sys­tem.

A propul­sion mount­ing sys­tem or flap struc­ture that forms the rear part of the wings and front aero­foils is one of the Lil­i­um Jet’s major com­po­nents, pro­duc­ing lift by inter­act­ing with air­flow from the engine. It also hous­es the propul­sion and vec­tor­ing sys­tems respon­si­ble for ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal flight.

Inte­grat­ing elec­tric jet engines into the wing flaps pro­vide advan­tages in pay­load, aero­dy­nam­ic effi­cien­cy and a low­er noise pro­file, while also pro­vid­ing thrust vec­tor con­trol to manoeu­ver the Lil­i­um Jet through every phase of flight.

Aern­no­va, one of the largest Tier 1 aero­space sup­pli­ers pro­vid­ing aerostruc­ture for com­pa­nies such as Air­bus, Boe­ing and Embraer, will work with Lil­i­um on the design, man­u­fac­ture, and sup­ply of the flap struc­ture.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant step towards ser­i­al pro­duc­tion of the Lil­i­um Jet and its mod­u­lar and scal­able propul­sion mount­ing sys­tem will utilise light­weight mate­r­i­al such as car­bon fibre-rein­forced epoxy.

Lil­i­um chief oper­at­ing offi­cer Yves Yem­si said: “Aern­no­va is an indus­try leader for cus­tomised design and man­u­fac­ture of metal­lic and com­pos­ite assem­blies, and it is impor­tant for us to col­lab­o­rate with the best aero­space sup­pli­ers and to lever­age their exper­tise.”

Aern­no­va CEO Ricar­do Chocar­ro said: “With 28 years of exper­tise in devel­op­ing and cre­at­ing air­craft struc­tures, we are proud to be con­tribut­ing to a project as excit­ing and unique as the all-elec­tric Lil­i­um Jet, which has the poten­tial to change the avi­a­tion indus­try in a pos­i­tive, sus­tain­able way, so we are delight­ed to be a key part­ner.”

Ear­li­er this week, Lil­i­um part­nered with Hon­ey­well Aero­space and Den­so to man­u­fac­ture its elec­tric motor, hav­ing worked for near­ly two years on the radi­al con­fig­u­ra­tion of the rotor and sta­tor to low­er com­po­nent weight to just over 4kg, while the pow­er den­si­ty of the first pro­to­type pro­duces over 100kW.

Last week, Lil­i­um announced 37 new patent appli­ca­tions pub­lished by the Euro­pean Patent Office (EPO) includ­ing ener­gy, propul­sion, struc­tures and inte­ri­or, avion­ics and cus­tom elec­tric, with more than 70% focussed on ener­gy and propul­sion.