Air taxi company is developing turnkey mini-airports

All-electric air taxi company Lilium has released its plans for modular mini-airports which could be placed almost anywhere

Spotted: We have previously covered Lilium, the company developing an all-electric, on-demand air taxi service. The company has been working to develop their aeroplanes, with a plan to deliver direct flights of up to one hour from city centre to city centre by 2025. The planes would take-off and land vertically, like helicopters, minimising the infrastructure required. Now, the company has released its designs for landing pads it hopes to use. 

Called vertiports, Lilium’s landing pads are based around a lean, modular design that can be placed in a wide variety of locations, from an existing transport terminal to a shopping centre, on top of a busy car park or next to a suburban residential development. 

The design is based around a set of standardised modules which allows developers to easily slot one into existing or planned developments. The vertiport modules can also be prefabricated off-site. Each module includes a take-off site, parking stand for the planes and a terminal. The company is also developing a plug-and-play capability which includes high-power charging equipment, air traffic control technology and digital check-in tools.

The vertiports will also be adaptable and scalable, for rapid growth. According to Lilium, “Keeping our design lean and modular will allow our network to grow rapidly, helping us to deliver high-speed connectivity in a fraction of the time it typically takes to build roads or railways.”

In addition to Lilium, we have seen a number of projects aiming to develop electric aircraft, although Lilium is perhaps the most comprehensive projects we have seen, and one of the furthest along. Other innovative projects include a plan for electric commercial planes and an autonomous drone taxi.

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