Flying car Lilium Aviation receives tens of millions of dollars in financing

Lilium Aviation, a "flying car" startup, announced that it has received 10 million euros (about 10.7 million US dollars) in Series A financing led by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström's Atomico. Lilium Aviation was founded in early 2015 by four engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich. It has currently developed a prototype of a flying car without wheels, the Lilium jet. The Lilium jet can take off and land vertically and is driven by 36 directional ducted electric fans installed on the wings and front cabin to propel the aircraft.

The Lilium jet can accommodate two passengers, has a speed of 250 to 300 kilometers per hour and a range of 300 kilometers.

On its official website, Lilium Aviation expressed the hope that the Lilium jet would ease the pressure on ground transportation and reduce environmental pollution. "Our cities are overcrowded with 1.2 billion vehicles today, and this number will grow to 2 billion by 2035," Lilium Aviation wrote in a blog post.

The Lilium jet will begin its test flight early next year, and earlier, Lilium Aviation has revealed that it expects to be officially launched in 2018.

Manned aircraft is not a new concept. In addition to Lilium Aviation, many companies are also developing it. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, invested in two startups that develop "flying cars" this year in his personal name, Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk. Currently, the products of these two companies are also in the prototype stage. In addition, Terrafugia, E-volo, AeroMobil, Moller International, Joby Aviation and other companies are also developing their own flying cars. Among them, the Volocopter developed by E-volo has successfully flown. However, when it comes to the concept of manned aircraft, it is still our domestic Ehang. At CES in January this year, Ehang released the all-electric self-driving manned aircraft "Ehang 184" to the world, which attracted global media coverage for a while. Of course, Ehang finally went to carry artificial organs.

The capital market has been very cold towards drones this year, but now it seems that manned aircraft may become the next darling.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.