Lilium announces first hub location for U.S. air mobility network

Lilium (Munich, Germany) announced on Nov. 11 that it has partnered with Tavistock Development Co. and the City of Orlando, and has determine the first U.S. hub location — and the country’s first urban and regional electric air mobility network — for its high-speed, electric air mobility network is Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida. Launch for the hub is set for 2025.

The Florida network forms part of Lilium’s vision of bringing regional air mobility to locations across the globe. Lake Nona’s central location, for example, provides the opportunity to connect more than 20 million Floridians within a 186-mile radius, serving several major cities including Orlando and Tampa. According to Lilium, the Lake Nona vertiport will also create more than 100 jobs in the Orlando area, with hundreds more to follow across Florida.

Further, design agency Tavistock Development Co.’s capabilities in design, planning, construction and development will support Lilium’s efforts in building this scalable, high-speed regional transportation system, across major locations in Florida. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Tavistock and build the first stretch of  Florida’s high-speed electric transportation network with Central Florida at its core,” says Dr. Remo Gerber, COO, Lilium. “It shows that regional high-speed air mobility can be built by private initiative and give communities such as Lake Nona, which can also serve Orlando and arrivals from its international airport, the ability to determine themselves whether they want a link into a high-speed transportation network.”

According to Lilium, it and Tavistock have already created a breakthrough vertiport architecture for its hub location that is both functional and aesthetically unique. A variety of standardized vertiport designs will allow flexibility so that sites can be assembled or incorporated into existing transport structures in both urban and suburban developments. These designs provide optionality for metropolitan landscapes with the ability for offsite pre-construction that reduce costs and accelerate development.

The vertiport locations are subject to approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and other regulatory agencies. The Lilium Jet is under certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the FAA and will operate under existing regulatory frameworks.