What’s this at Silverstone?

[neilf]

Any AV sleuths out there?

Spotted this a couple of times during the GP yesterday. It’s parked on one of the extended track sections at the Porsche Experience Centre next to hanger straight. Looks like the Porsche tracks were closed as there were various helicopters parked where Porsche’s would normally be whizzing around. I assume Porsche rent Silverstone the space as chopper overspill parking for the weekend.

I have no idea what the object is! Help.

Edited by neilf on Monday 8th July 10:35

[neilf]

[48k]

neilf said:

[48k]

EmailAddress said:

Is it this?

https://lilium.com/

Yes

[Panamax]

Electric jet with 36 engines? Strange, but true!

[neilf]

Superb!

Thanks folks.

Thats the fella

https://jet.lilium.com/?_gl=1*1n4pb5c*_up*MQ..*_ga...

[Panamax]

Upon first glance at your initial image I thought, "What the hell's an Ekranoplan doing at Silverstone?!"

https://www.google.com/search?q=ekranoplan&cli...

[Bonefish Blues]

And this is the kind of place it'll operate from:

https://scramblers.bicesterheritage.co.uk/post/uk-...

The chaps at Bicester Heritage are going gangbusters with their plans for the site.

[Panamax]

Bonefish Blues said:

And this is the kind of place it'll operate from

Interesting. I wonder whether these types of vehicles will be welcomed at, for instance, Battersea Heliport? There might be advantages over the significant noise of conventional helicopters in a built-up area.
https://londonheliport.co.uk/

[Leon R]

Normally sits at Kidlington.

[CanAm]

I wondered why it had tripods supporting the wings. It appears that this is just a full-size model and that only scale models have flown so far. There seems to be some controversy over the performance claims by the manufacturer.

[MattyD803]

Walked past this yesterday on site and couldn't get my head around it...suspected an electric plane, but thanks for confirming.

[durbster]

I saw this at Silverstone at the weekend and was going to start a thread in here to ask what the hell it was, so thanks for saving me the effort

It's such a bizarre looking thing I thought it might be a film prop.

[knight]

The company I work for has entered into a strategic collaboration with Lilium, whatever that means!

[CanAm]

What.s impressive is that (according to their website) it can cruise at 10% power using wings that appear to have no airfoil section because virtually the whole upper surface is covered with engines.

Disclaimer: I am no aero-engineer and I could well be barking up the wrong tree.