Lilium starts fuselage assembly at Aciturri for its Lilium Jet

Lil­i­um has start­ed fuse­lage assem­bly for the Lil­i­um Jet, on track for expect­ed first manned flight planned in late 2024, the first of sev­en fuse­lages for the sev­en air­craft Lil­i­um will use to achieve type-cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Lil­i­um Jet.

The fuse­lage was devel­oped in col­lab­o­ra­tion with, and is being built by, tier one aero­space sup­pli­er and strate­gic part­ner Aci­tur­ri at its facil­i­ties in Val­ladol­id, Spain. The fuse­lage is planned for deliv­ery to Lil­i­um facil­i­ties in Wessling, Ger­many in the fourth quar­ter 2023, pri­or to planned start of assem­bly of the first Lil­i­um Jet by year end.

Lil­i­um COO Yves Yem­si said: “We are delight­ed to kick off assem­bly of the first Lil­i­um Jet fuse­lage at Aci­tur­ri, bring­ing us one step clos­er to reshap­ing sus­tain­able region­al air mobil­i­ty. Our approach of team­ing with proven aero­space sup­pli­ers will bring our cut­ting edge eVTOL air­craft to mar­ket as we advance along a path to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and entry into ser­vice for the Lil­i­um Jet.”

Lil­i­um CEO Klaus Roewe added: “This phase is more than just a tech­ni­cal step – it’s a clear sig­nal to all Lil­i­um stake­hold­ers of our com­mit­ment to mak­ing region­al air mobil­i­ty more effi­cient, enjoy­able, and sus­tain­able.”

This lever­ages Aci­tur­ri’s pro­fi­cien­cy in design­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing high-qual­i­ty Aerostruc­tures fol­low­ing a com­pre­hen­sive indus­tri­al pro­gramme review con­duct­ed in late-August 2023 in which lead­er­ship from Lil­i­um and Aci­tur­ri reviewed and green­light­ed the ini­tial indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion com­po­nents and process.

Aci­tur­ri is a Lil­i­um investor and an estab­lished aero­space sup­pli­er with near­ly 50 years of expe­ri­ence in com­mer­cial air­craft pro­grams, includ­ing the design and man­u­fac­tur­ing of major air­frame com­po­nents for Air­bus A350, A320, A400M, Boe­ing 787 and Embraer KC390 pro­grams. As well as sup­port­ing con­struc­tion of the Lil­i­um Jet, Aci­tur­ri will con­tin­ue to sup­port the future Lil­i­um Jet design and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Aci­tur­ri Aerostruc­tures CEO Maria Euge­nia Clemente con­clud­ed: “Aci­tur­ri is com­mit­ted to play­ing a lead­ing role in the trans­for­ma­tion of sus­tain­able region­al air mobil­i­ty, which sup­ports Europe’s goal of achiev­ing cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty. We are ful­ly aligned with Lilium’s vision and design, and we are delight­ed to have evolved our part­ner­ship to such a foun­da­tion­al stage towards the birth of the Lil­i­um Jet.”

Ear­li­er this month, Lil­i­um and Saint-Gob­ain Aero­space part­nered to devel­op the Lil­i­um Jet’s win­dows and wind­shields trans­paren­cies fol­low­ing exten­sive col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Lil­i­um and Saint-Gob­ain team up on bespoke wind­shields