Lilium Jet nominated for top accolade – the Red Dot: Luminary 2019
Five design concepts were nominated for the highest distinction in the Red Dot Award: Design Concept: the Red Dot: Luminary, which serves as inspiration and rolemodel. Among the nominees is also the Lilium Jet from the German Lilium GmbH. The all-electric jet is capable of transporting 5 passengers, and can cover 300 km in just an hour on a single charge. It takes off and lands vertically, thanks to 36 tilting jet engines spread across two sets of wings. Red Dot talked to the Designers Daniel Wiegand, Mathis Cosson and Dr. Patrick Nathen.
What was your goal when you designed the Lilium Jet?
As a team, we set out to design something the world had never seen before. An all-electric aircraft that would deliver flights of up to 300 km that was affordable and accessible for all. But we didn’t want it just to be good for the environment, it had to look great and feel great for the customer, too. Finally, it had to speak to the principle of simplicity that runs through everything we do.
What are the challenges in your everyday work?
We are trying to deliver a form of travel that has never really been seen before. That means balancing a wide range of competing requirements, both in terms of engineering and design, while simultaneously moving as fast as we can to bring our vision to life.
What do you see as being the biggest challenges in your industry at present?
To bring our vision to life we'll need to take the public on a journey with us, both literally and metaphorically. There are many reasonable questions we'll need to answer, from how our service will work and how quiet the aircraft can be to what the customer experience is like onboard and how the regulations will work. While there are many challenges in making this real, we see a clear path to achieving it and hope to operate the Lilium Jet by 2025.
Where will your industry be in ten years? What trends and developments do you expect?
We expect that this industry will take-off. Many other companies will come to the market and travelling by air taxi will become a normal day-to-day occurrence for people around the world. We expect technological advancements to be a big enabler, too, from launch of autonomous flight to improved battery performance.
For a project like Lilium which is already prominent, are there benefits of winning a design award?
Absolutely. For us, knowing that we’ve designed something that has never been designed before, means validation. Validation that people appreciate the design we’ve come up and that they think it suits our future aspirations – with no benchmark to compare against this is really reassuring!
Do you look forward to coming to the awarding ceremony in Singapore? What is your expectation of the event?
For us the most exciting thing will be to have the opportunity to be surrounded by so many like-minded and awesome designers. To have the Lilium Jet recognised and to see people really starting to understand and support our mission is exciting, too!
Winners will be honoured during the awarding ceremony in Singapore
The winners of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2019 will be announced on 25 September. The successful designers come to Singapore from all over the world to receive their awards at the award ceremony. The recipient of the competition’s highest award, the Red Dot: Luminary, will also be unveiled on stage. This is another highlight of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept gala.