ESA-sponsored startup promises everyday personal aircraft

MUNICH, Germany, May 6 (UPI) -- A German startup company wants to make and sell the first personal vertical-takeoff and landing aircraft for everyday use.

The company, Lilium, was founded in 2015 by four engineering doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich. After several proof of concept studies and smaller prototypes, the startup is ready to build its first full-scale model.

Lilium -- which has received funding and institutional support as part of a business incubator program sponsored by the European Space Agency -- hopes to take its first vehicle to market in 2018.

Their design combines helicopter-style rotors with a fixed-wing airplane design. Its vertical takeoff ability means it won't need to use airports, and its all-electric engines will make it much quieter than helicopters.

It will also be easier to fly and safer than a traditional helicopter. Lilium engineers say its redundant batteries, engines and controllers will make it less prone to catastrophic mechanical failure.

"Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," Daniel Wiegand, CEO and one of Lilium's four founders, said in a news release. "We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport."

The plane will be suitable for flight only in uncongested airspace during daylight and good weather. It will safely perform at an altitude up to nearly two miles. Engineers expect the craft to be capable of speeds of almost 250 miles per hour.

The first models are likely to be rather expensive, but the company hopes their product can make private air transit affordable for the masses.

"In the longer term, our target is to build an aircraft that not only the super-rich can afford, and that can make private air transportation possible for a much wider number of people," Wiegand said. "With the concept of taking off and landing almost everywhere, we could see that one day our plane will be used for quick and daily transportation almost like a car today."