Aviation company Lilium is moving ahead with testing of its all-electric plane, with the newest footage to come into sight from the German startup demonstrating the aircraft performing a few new moves. While short and not exactly remarkable, the test flight marks another step onward for a company targeting to have a commercial air taxi service in full swing in 2025.
Although Lilium has been on the flying taxi picture ever since appearing out of a European Space Agency incubator in 2016, it was only this year that its electric aircraft made its initial flight. We then watched it fly at speeds of above 100 km (62 mph) in October, shuffling between VTOL (short for vertical take-off and landing) configuration and winged flight.
The latest video is from the same series of pilot flights in early October and shows the jet take off perpendicularly for a short trip around the testing area. Once in the air, it increases speed up to a speed of 65 km/h (40 mph), goes up at a rate of 300 ft (91 m) per minute, executes a turn at a 20-degree bank angle, raises the bank angle to 30 degrees, gets down at 300 ft. per minute before another angled turn and vertical landing.
Read: The Competition To Build A Flying Electric Taxi
Different from the earlier video, which was a few shots of the flying jet seamed together with some intense music arranged over the top, the latest video shows the test flight in its totality. Lilium says the three-minute flight was a portion of controllability testing planned to see how the aircraft performs during banked turns, and that it executed as expected.
Lilium says it has now completed this first phase of testing, and its next emphasis will be on the whole transition to wing-borne flight, which will include the shifting of the 12 flaps through 0º to direct airflow over the wings. Eventually, the Lilium jet is likely to have a cruise speed of up 300 km/h.
The company wishes to have a fully commercial service functioning in two or three places around the world by 2025. You can check the latest Lilium testing video below.
