In mid-October, it was announced that Lilium's approximately 300 patents had been sold to the American company Archer Aviation Inc. for around €18 million. This sealed the fate of the once visionary aviation startup. With the sale of the patents, the American competitor acquired, among other things, the aircraft design, battery management concepts, electric motors, and, most importantly, the ducted fan of Lilium's electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which it intends to use in its own aircraft.
Particularly bitter: Lilium once invested 1.5 billion euros. into the development of a purely electric aircraft. Only a fraction of that remains. The problems were multifaceted. Ultimately, the Bavarian startup never managed to complete its prototypes. The planned manned maiden flight in Spain never took place.
A new tenant is now moving into the 6,000 square meter area at the Oberpfaffenhofen special airport. Quantum Systems They plan to build drones on the site where welding once took place on the flying taxi. This is further evidence that the Lilium Jet is history. But how did it come to this?
Looking back: From soaring high to crashing low
When Lilium was founded in 2015 by four engineers from the Technical University of Munich, the vision sounded nothing short of revolutionary: an electrically powered aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing – a so-called eVTOL. With this, the Bavarian startup aimed to do nothing less than reinvent urban mobility for the future. The idea quickly found enthusiastic supporters: In a very short time, Lilium raised over one billion euros in investment and was considered one of the most promising tech companies in Europe.
With the Lilium Jet, the company presented a futuristic aircraft designed to shuttle quietly, emission-free, and efficiently between cities. Production facilities were built in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, hundreds of jobs were created, and Lilium seemed well on its way to making aviation history.
But the dream of electric flight proved far more technically and regulatory challenging than anticipated. Timelines were repeatedly delayed, certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) remained a distant prospect, and development costs skyrocketed. While competitors – such as Archer and Joby Aviation – gained momentum in the US, Lilium struggled with funding problems and heavy losses.
Finally, in the autumn of 2024, the break came: Two German subsidiaries filed for insolvency after neither new investors nor government guarantees could be found. A year later, it was clear that the story of the Munich-based aviation pioneer would come to an end in this form.
Why Lilium failed
The failure of Lilium is the result of a combination of technical, financial and structural problems – and at the same time a lesson in how difficult it is to bring about an aviation revolution from a startup.
One of the main reasons lies in the technical concept itself. From the outset, Lilium opted for a particularly complex design: The Lilium Jet was intended to take off vertically using several small, electrically powered jet engines and then transition into horizontal flight. This architecture promised efficiency and quiet flight, but proved extremely challenging in practice. Engineers and industry experts warned early on that the targeted range and performance would be virtually impossible to achieve with the available battery technology. Development took longer than planned, and certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) became increasingly unlikely.
At the same time, the company was struggling with massive financing difficulties. Despite billions in investment, development was consuming enormous sums without a market-ready product in sight. Lilium depended on continuous capital inflows, but the confidence of many investors waned as timelines were repeatedly delayed. A hoped-for government guarantee of €50 million, which was supposed to enable the company to secure a new round of financing, ultimately failed to materialize – a severe blow that drastically limited its room for maneuver.
Regulatory hurdles also played a crucial role. Certification of an entirely new aircraft type is a lengthy and expensive process in which every component must be tested and approved. Lilium's novel propulsion system meant that many of these processes had to be developed from scratch – a monumental undertaking that even large aerospace companies can scarcely manage on their own.
Ultimately, this combination of technical complexity, capital requirements, competitive pressure, and political uncertainty led to insolvency. The subsequent sale of approximately 300 patents to the American rival Archer Aviation brought an end to one of Germany's most ambitious aviation projects.
