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It looks like Lilum Aviation is now hiring http://lilium-aviation.com/#jobs
This is the company that has announced via the Telegraph a vertical lift flying car in two years.
Oh and there's something in there about a personal electric jet, with vertical take off and landing, a top speed of 250MPH and a range of 300 Miles.
But really, a job designing a real flying car, how cool is that?
From the article:
Personal aeroplanes which can take off noiselessly from the back garden, will be available within two years, engineers have claimed.
Lilium Aviation is designing an electric two-seater aircraft which takes just 20 hours to learn to fly, and can travel at speeds of 250mph.
Crucially, the small aircraft, which weighs just 25kg[sic], can take off vertically which means it does not need to fly from an airport, but could be parked outside a house or in a garden.
The company says the design will 'open the door to a new class of simpler, quieter and environmentally friendly planes' and will be available from 2018.
"Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," said Daniel Wiegand, CEO and one of the company's four founders.
"We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport.
"To reduce noise and pollution, we are using electric engines so it can also be used close to urban areas."
(Score: 2) by devlux on Tuesday May 10 2016, @08:44PM
My honest guess is that the software for the flying car is the only thing that will ever actually ship. However if you read the various openings there is a lot more than a software engineer that they need. Basically they have some very nice 3D renders and a boatload of cash to build something in 2 years that somewhat resembles the renders.
I agree that you are going to need to find a large supply of unobtainium for this to fly, but it misses the point that someone has actual funding and the project sounds cool.
Keep in mind that until the sound barrier was broken, going faster than sound was widely considered impossible.
Before the space race, we thought that rockets to the moon would be impossible, yet we had men there in a decade once NASA got funding.
This is the ESA funding development, which as I understand it, is Europe's NASA and while it's not a moon shot, it's still interesting if they can make it work.
I wonder what impossible things we'll be taking for granted next. A computer that fits in your pocket? Video Calls? Unpossible!
Had it been anyone else I would be wasting precisely no one's time with this. But the whole ESA angle gives it some credibility to my mind and in my original summary there was no details on the flying car itself. Just mention of someone hiring for what could be the ultimate in "cool resume bullets".
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday May 10 2016, @09:20PM
Oh, I'm not saying any several of the design goals aren't doable by sacrificing one of them. But it's like that whole "good, fast, cheap: pick 2" saying.
1) VTOL (and, sort of by extension, small)
2) electric
3) flyable by amateurs
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by DeathElk on Tuesday May 10 2016, @11:50PM
Thanks for posting the article, interesting. Imagine where we'd be if the majority didn't fall back to nay-say by default.
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Wednesday May 11 2016, @03:19AM
I'll go with nay-say. Feel free to archive this and throw it back in my face if the opportunity comes.