A flying and electric taxi?

This is what the German company Lylium is trying to offer the public in a few years.

They first flew a small-scale prototype in 2017 to verify the concept, and recently they presented a new prototype in real size that made a small demonstration flight.

It is a vehicle for a pilot and four passengers that can take customers through the air based on 36 electric motors placed on a kind of wings on both sides of the device.

It works like a helicopter since it can take off and land in a small area of ​​land. And it seems suitable for transporting people in urban environments. An ideal journey is the one that today is made between an airport and a big city, as is the case of New York.

The people of Lylium have clear that getting a certification to fly is not easy and it will take them several years, since the aeronautical authorities demand the greatest guarantees in terms of flight safety. But they also know that if they are able to overcome that obstacle, the sales of their devices can be large.

In the video that I show you can see the small demonstration flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qotuu8JjQM

I am very clear that electric vehicles are going to be part of the immediate future, although the issue of people flying will be the most complicated due to safety regulations and weight limitations (electric batteries weigh a lot, at least for now).

That’s why the simplicity of the designs is very important in the devices that try it. And this is the case of Lylium. Their vehicle is very simple. There are many electric engines that generate the flight (36) so if one fails it is to be assumed that the failure is not catastrophic.

The great limitation (as in all electric vehicles) are batteries. Heavy and slow to charge. Although if the transport “service” is circumscribed to a repetitive path (between a city and an airport), one way to have it quickly in flight could be to replace the batteries with other charged ones, and put the used ones to recharge.

The fact that the noise it produces is 80% less than that of a helicopter, also helps it to be a possible alternative. In the cities nobody wants to have sources of noise nearby.

We’ll see how it goes for those of Lylium. I wish them the best, it will be good for everyone.