Frankfurt, Düsseldorf Daniel Wiegand is used to criticism. The head of the air taxi company Lilium has been criticized for months. The IPO through the merger with an empty shell (Spac) around two weeks ago went without any major setbacks. But that did not dispel the doubts about the vision of an electric vertical starter.
Above all in the complex approach with which the company’s air taxis will one day fly, critics see a problem. Lilium wants its aircraft to take off and land vertically with 36 small electric rotors that are foldably integrated into the wings of the jet.
Competitors like Joby Aviation, who work with large and open rotors above the cabin, see themselves at an advantage. Wiegand denies this: “The competitor mentioned is twice as old as we are, but by no means further.”
The young entrepreneur promises that Lilium will build the first model of the series aircraft in the winter of next year. “We want to build the first seven-seater high-flyers that are eligible for approval in winter 2022. The approval tests take place with these jets. “
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Until then, further test flights are to take place with the current demonstrator, which were suspended for a longer period due to the fire in one of the first demonstrators. “In winter we will go to Spain by plane. The weather is better there and we can fly longer and longer distances, ”said Wiegand.
The young entrepreneur wants to build the seven-seater in the winter of 2022 in the way it will later go into operation.
There is currently no reason to change the plans. “Is the schedule set in stone? Of course not. It’s a challenging goal, ”says Wiegand. Lilium is breaking new ground in many areas with the jet. “We would be naive if we said: Nothing can happen there.”
Read the whole interview here:
Mr. Wiegand, Lilium has been on the Nasdaq for over a week – with only a slight price increase. Would you have expected more enthusiasm among investors for your vision of the electric whiz kid?
We are very happy with the start on the Nasdaq. We don’t make short-term interpretations because that has little to do with us and a lot to do with stock exchange technology. We are now well financed, that is crucial.
Did you really want to go public in the US now because Lilium would otherwise have been left behind by competitors like Joby or Archer for important access to capital?
When we decided to go public with a Spac, we wanted to quickly finance regional, electric, sustainable aviation and find the right partner. Our decision had nothing to do with our competitors because their IPOs were not known at the time of our decision. In retrospect, however, it shows that we did the right thing here too. With our strategy, we are also absolutely competitive in terms of financing.
Wasn’t there a chance to get the funds you needed without going public?
We also looked at private financing rounds. For us, however, the question was: How do we quickly and efficiently fund an extremely research-intensive company that needs about a billion dollars before the first euro in sales takes place? We therefore decided to go public at the beginning of the year, because this enables us to obtain financing on a sufficient scale. As a listed company, we now have a wider range of other financing options. By the way: the IPO with its many requirements made us as a company and team more mature and grown up.
But is the product ripe enough? Others like Joby seem to be way further ahead.
The competitor mentioned is twice as old as we are, but by no means further. We’re all flying technology demonstrators right now. We’re all at the same point when it comes to flight tests and the certification process. We have been testing our five-seater since 2019 and have an extremely strong management and development team.
What exactly are you flying for test flights at the moment?
It is a further developed version of the demonstrator that made the maiden flight in 2019. He now has the technologies that we need for approval, for example in the area of fire protection. In the next few weeks we will be flying at a higher speed than the previous 100 kilometers per hour. It is mainly tested how the software works with the flight physics.
“In winter we will go to Spain by plane.”
Where are you going to do this? More speed certainly also means longer flights.
For the time being, the flight tests will continue in Oberpfaffenhofen. In winter we will go to Spain by plane. The weather is better there and we can fly longer and longer distances.
Good to know, so far you have only been able to let your demonstrator fly for a very short time if our information is correct …
… yes, these are typically only short flights, but we don’t need any more for the tests that are pending now. Here in Munich we can only fly within the airport area.
When will you be doing such longer flights?
In the coming winter. But even in Spain there will be no flights over 50 kilometers away. These are remote-controlled flights, the jet must remain in view.
But how do you then plan to arrive at the many thousands of flight hours that you need for approval?
They will only take place with the production aircraft. We want to build the first seven-seater high-flyers that are eligible for approval in winter 2022. The admission tests take place with these jets. We have to prove that all systems, including the necessary security reserves, are available.
We keep hearing that the schedule has been set too ambitiously. Is that correct?
From today’s perspective: No. We are currently on schedule. Is the schedule set in stone? Of course not. It’s a challenging goal. We try to minimize risks, but nobody can completely rule out risks in life. We are breaking new ground in many areas with our jet. We would be naive if we said: Nothing can happen there. Our long-term investors know that too.
Again the clear question: There is currently no reason to modify plans – not even with regard to approval?
Not at the moment, no. It’s an ambitious plan with little buffer. But planning has to be ambitious for a start-up, we are in fierce competition. Exact fulfillment of plans is important to us as a company. But it does not determine the success or failure of electric aviation as a whole.
And that too for clarification: the aircraft that you will build in about 14 months and with which you then want to pass the final tests for approval is the planned seven-seater that is supposed to take off fully loaded?
Exactly. Incidentally, the five-seater is already flying at full weight.
It should be very loud, however, we were told by pilots at the airport in Oberpfaffenhofen.
I cannot understand statements like that. I’m even surprised they even wanted to hear our jet. And I’m not saying that because there is construction going on everywhere at the airport. The readings from the aircraft we are currently flying are exactly what we expected and forecast. And they will also apply to the seven-seater, which will have even more noise protection measures. You only hear a kind of noise, you can’t even hear the electric motors.
Experts see the transition from hovering to horizontal gliding and back again before landing as a very critical point. How stable is your jet in these phases?
In the speed range that we have tested so far, the aircraft meets all the stability margins that we need for approval. The critical area you are addressing is from 40 to 150 kilometers per hour. We have flown through half of it so far, the second half will now come in autumn and winter in Spain.
Safety reserves are extremely important in aviation. How do you ensure that the Lilium jet does not go to the ground in an uncontrolled manner if one or more engines fail?
We control that via the software. This ensures that the jet can continue to fly stably if two or three engines fail. For example, this is exactly what we have to prove for approval.
“From the software perspective, we only have four engines”
But isn’t this control system incredibly complex with 36 engines, like your concept as a whole?
We don’t control the 36 engines individually, that would be extremely complex indeed. The engines are divided into four clusters that can operate independently of one another. So from the software perspective, we only have four engines. For example, if an engine in one of the four groups fails, the software has to manage a loss of performance of around ten percent.
Then put another way: Aren’t concepts such as large rotors above the cabin or also those of drones simpler and therefore better?
I don’t want to rate the competitors here. This is not my job. We are convinced of our concept. Overall, however, we have fewer moving parts than our competitors. We also don’t have any additional surfaces that are needed for steering, such as rudders. This reduces the complexity of the software. We only control the engines. Building an electric whiz is always a challenge, regardless of the concept.
Why don’t you show the jet to the public to get rid of the constant criticism?
I can understand the public interest very well. But our American competitors have not yet made a public flight demonstration either. Why? None of us has so far more than one demonstrator that is only on the way to a full flight program. When we are ready in the flight program with the demonstrator, we do the public demonstration flight. We’re already looking forward to the day at Lilium. In the meantime, we are trying to provide the best possible insight with transparent communication via social media.
At the same time, you are already considering building a 15-seater. Is it that easy?
So it’s not easy, but technically and economically possible. It’s a new aircraft development where everything is scaled proportionally. It is a new development, but based on the technology of the seven-seater. We can build an airplane with 14 or 15 seats with today’s engines and batteries.
Are you working on it yet?
No, we won’t start development before the seven-seater is approved. So it will start in three years at the earliest. We said that to all investors.
Do you want to develop a new aircraft exactly when the series production of the seven-seater and its flight operations are ramping up? You take over.
We only start the project when we have the necessary developer resources free. For series production and flight operations, we no longer need the full capacity of the employees in development. And at the beginning, such a team is quite manageable. But again: at the moment we are not even looking at such a larger jet. We have more than enough to do with the seven-seater.
Mr. Wiegand, thank you very much for the interview.
More: Comment: Air taxis are more than just a crazy vision.