One benefit of the new wave of electric vertical take-off & landing (eVTOL) and electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) aircraft is the freedom the electric propulsion system gives designers. Airbus has a “Bird of Prey” concept that will please most Star Trekfans, and now a flying Manta Ray could grace our skies in a few years.

Lilium Turns To The Aquatic World For Its Air Taxi Design

It’s no secret we love Lilium. The company has been hard at work for the past few years and is inching closer to fulfilling our urban air mobility (UAM) dreams. It has designed an eye-catching air taxi. The electric vertical take-off & landing (eVTOL) design was recently honored with a prestigious design award from the Red Dot Design Award organization, in its 2019 “Design Concept” category for novel concepts and products not yet on the market.

The 5-seat eVTOL aircraft won the “Best of the Best” award out of 4,200 participants. Lilium was selected as one of the less than 1% to receive this award, and no less 2 months after its public maiden flight in the skies over Germany.

The Red Dot Luminary award is Red Dot’s highest annual accolade, the winner of which will be announced in September from a handful of nominees. Good luck, Lilium!

Taking A Cue From Nature, Lilium Designs With Biomimicry

Lilium’s designer, Mathis Cosson, says: “We wanted to break with traditional aerospace design and deliver something the world had never seen before. While it had to fit strict requirements from our engineering team, we also wanted to wow people with its design.”

 

Biomimicry is an important part of aviation design and a great source of inspiration in the industry. Specifically, the way a manta ray glides through the water influenced the Lilium Jet, resulting in an elegant and minimalist design. As you can see from Cosson’s first-hand sketches at the age of 23, the idea was to create an aircraft that looked “as if they have been sculpted by nature rather than by the human hand.”

In many ways, the company has. There was a time when the design was more suggestive and less generic. Perhaps the time has come around again to revive thought- and emotion-provoking designs when we enter this new area of urban mobility.

Daniel Wiegand, cofounder and CEO of Lilium, added:

“While we fell in love with the Lilium Jet before it even left the drawing board, we are humbled to have had its beauty recognized and validated through this award. We are immensely proud of what Mathis and the wider team have achieved. It just goes to show that you don’t need decades of experience, or a huge company behind you, to do something remarkable. Our focus is now on delivering our goal of having the LiliumJet delighting customers in various regions around the world by 2025.”

Along with the Lilium Red Dot Award, we’re happy to give Lilium the CleanTechnica Most Promising Award and CleanTechnica Cool Award, something that will surely become a collector’s item in a few decades. No matter what award it’s receiving this week, we appreciate that Lilium steadfastly continued to develop its Lilium Jet and didn’t bow to mostly plain, conventional, industrial designs.