[2] Initial design studies included forward-folding wings, so that the aircraft could be piloted as a VTOL and recharge in only few hours from a standard 240 V electrical outlet.
The unmanned first flight of the two-seat Eagle full size prototype was on 20 April 2017 at the Mindelheim-Mattsies airfield, Bavaria, Germany.
[3] Unmanned flight testing of the five-seat Lilium Jet took place at Oberpfaffenhofen airfield near Munich.
[10] The Lilium Jet uses multiple relatively small ducted propellers driven by electric motors to provide lift during take-off and landing, as well as thrust during the cruise phase.
Lilium says that it refers to the propulsion system as a "jet" because the propellers are enclosed in nacelles.
[13] Lilium invested in Ionblox for its silicon-dominant anode battery technology, which it believes offers uniquely high energy and power density (12C with 3.8 kW/kG at 50% charge and 3.0 kW/kG at 30%) needed for hover and take-off phases, even at low charge levels.
[15] In October 2019 the Lilium five-seater Jet received a Red Dot Award: Design Concept for “Best of the Best”.