4 ms·
Lilium is a shady company First, it's people without even most basic aeronautic backround designing an aircraft. Second, the number of flaws with their scheme
by baybal2 4y ago
Lilium is a shady company
First, it's people without even most basic aeronautic backround designing an aircraft.
Second, the number of flaws with their scheme being pointed by experts is so huge they cannot possibly get certified without throwing out everything, and redesigning completely from scratch.
Third, they finally hired somebody with the background, but so far nobody seen any change from "submarine ramen startup," to a serious company happening. Unlike with SpaceX, where Elon promptly yielded to professional engineers shutting down his fantasies like an SSTO design, 3D printing the whole rocket, or developing an ion engine to replace chemical one for last stages.
Fourth, they lash out on all criticism with "you have no vision," it's "aircraft 2.0," and similar dismissal.
Fifth, they courted investors with physically unachievable performance figures.
To me it's very clear, the company is heading the way of "HTML supercomputer"
P.S. Speak of the devil, it's already starting: https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2022-06-02/lilium-investors-class-action-lawsuit-filed-on-behalf-of-investors-the-portnoy-law-firm https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2022-06-02/lilium-i...
- heisenbit 4y agoThey have 600 people, onboarding a veteran Airbus exec as CEO and are located in the south of Germany which is the center of the German aircraft and high tech manufacturing industry. On the surface they pass my smell test. From their website: > As Co-founder and VP Product, Patrick leads the global digital and physical product strategy owning the technical operation readiness of the aircraft and its mobility service . He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich. Claiming they have no clue seems to be without facts.
- bouchard 4y agoTheir website isn't exactly up to date. Dr. Patrick Nathen who published Lilium's white paper detailing their aircraft architecture has left his VP role and is now an engineer within their flight mechanics team [0]. [0] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-patrick-nathen-1a0840b3_engineering-love-lilium-activity-6916627589885231105-13F6 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-patrick-nathen-1a0840b3_en...
- baybal2 4y ago
- snek_case 4y agoI'm also highly skeptical. I've heard from someone in the industry that their original demos were intentionally misleading. They had images of the Lilium aircraft taking off and flying for a bit, but what they didn't tell you was that the thing that was flying was essentially a large foam model that probably weighed 1/10th of what the real thing would. I don't know if that's the case anymore, but I wouldn't personally invest my own money in them though. Joby seems like they have a much more promising electric aircraft. I don't have a position in either company nor in any electric aircraft stocks.
- hrgiger 4y agoThat law firm looks like quite active on stock market [1]. There are like hundreds of them I saw on the news. [1] https://www.globenewswire.com/en/search/organization/Portnoy%2520Law https://www.globenewswire.com/en/search/organization/Portnoy...
- panick21_ 4y ago> Unlike with SpaceX, where Elon promptly yielded to professional engineers shutting down his fantasies like an SSTO design, 3D printing the whole rocket, or developing an ion engine to replace chemical one for last stages. What's the source for that?
- benhurmarcel 4y agoLooking at their location in Munich, they probably have hired engineers with background in Airbus Helicopter and Marenco.