Although the eVTOL movement has focused on so-called urban mobility, one of the many contenders in the market is proposing using existing airports as hubs for its future service in Germany. Lilium, which hopes to launch service using five-seat passenger drones in 2025, has partnered with Dusseldorf and Cologne/Bonn Airports to investigate using them as bases for serving those parts of the country. The plan would be to eventually expand the infrastructure to the rest of the country.
Lilium COO Dr. Remo Gerber said by using the airports as hubs, the densely populated region around them can be efficiently served with their drones. “Cities such as Aachen, Bielefeld, Münster, and Siegen will be directly connected to the region’s largest international airports within 30 mins, providing emission-free, high-speed connectivity at an affordable price,” he said. Lilium’s design is a hybrid of VTOL and conventional aircraft and uses 36 motors housed in the lifting surfaces, which pivot for vertical operations.
Airports all over the country are closing, just look at California, Chicago and New York. Land prices are closing them at an even more accelerated rate. This is as nuts as thinking electric/hybrid reduces total emissions….
Art … didn’t you get the Memo that free electrons grow on trees in LaLa Land? Alternately, all ya gotta do is buy some energy credits from the Chicago Climate Exchange and you’re covered. OH … wait … it’s an Incovenient Truth that Exchange closed a decade ago.
How the heck will an air vehicle using 36 electrical motors, the energy storage and control medium plus all the mechanicals for rotating wings prove to be more efficient than a good ‘ol piston or turbine engine while carrying five? Seems to me that the flying car crowd has now morphed into the UAM crowd? We’re rapidly moving from the ridiculous to the absurd!
The freebie is provided by government. Since the FAA has destroyed GA with help from Congress and the IRS and municipalities and lawyers, the demand for flying can now be reached by being different from GA. Because these are not quite airplanes or helicopters they are “new”. Your politicians don’t want to be seen as getting in the way. Therefore, these things will take off without all the drag holding back your piston plane.
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