At the beginning of the month, Daniel Wiegand’s life was still in order. For twelve months the federal government had announced that the start-up Lilium, which he co-founded, would receive a federal guarantee of 50 million euros, he told the FAZ at the beginning of this week. In this case, the Bavarian state also gave a guarantee of 50 million euros to the Bavarian company, and private investors also pledged 100 million euros in additional capital. “The money would have brought us a lot forward, beyond the first flight of the certified aircraft at the beginning of 2025,” said Wiegand. Just a few minutes later, the world looks completely different.
After the federal government was unable to come up with a guarantee of 50 million euros, the electric flight start-up announced that it would file for bankruptcy for its two most important operating companies. The request will be submitted to the Weilheim district court in the coming days, Lilium said. The Dutch-listed parent company may also have to file for bankruptcy. For Wiegand, this threatens a dream that began before Lilium was founded in 2015: zero-emission flight.
He was fascinated by airplanes during his childhood. At the age of eleven he built model airplanes with electric motors and at the age of 14 he obtained his glider licence. At that time, Wiegand even won a prize from “Jugend forscht” – for a model of an adaptive aircraft wing. After studying economics in Freiburg, the native of Tübingen dedicated his career to aviation and studied aeronautical engineering at the renowned TU Munich.
High ambitions meet reality
While he was still studying, he came up with the idea of a vertical take-off electric jet. A lot of people would have said he was crazy at the time, he would say later. But after some persuasion, he found colleagues in the engineers Sebastian Born, Matthias Meiner and Patrick Nathen and founded Lilium with them in 2015. The start-up grows quickly – but only literally.
The company attracts prominent investors such as Frank Thelen and Skype founder Niklas Zennström and raises a large amount of money for a European startup – so far, 1.5 billion euros. But now and again the high ambitions come up against the reality.
At the beginning of 2020, one of the prototypes burned down during maintenance work; Test flights with the other jet must be put on hold for the time being; Aviation experts are beginning to express doubts about Lilium’s technical promises. And again and again Wiegand cannot keep his promises. When the company went public in New York in 2021, Lilium said it could build 90 aircraft within three years and generate sales of $250 million. But as is well known, this did not happen.
“You won’t find a competitor when this wasn’t the case”
Gradually the 500 kilometers of range and 400 kilometers per hour became the maximum speed of the first jet predicted in 2015 as 300 kilometers per hour and 175 kilometers of range. Wiegand considers this criticism exaggerated. “So far Lilium has developed and built exactly the aircraft we envisioned,” he said in an interview with FAZ After a total of nine years, Lilium is about two years behind. “But I don’t think you’ll find any contenders where this wasn’t the case.” Hardly any aircraft program can survive without delay.
Anyone who has ever spoken to Wiegand knows that he is passionate about electric flight – and he is 100 percent sure: of the industry, of Lilium technology, of himself, perhaps this whole conviction is also necessary to get something like this ambitious idea even this far. However, Wiegand may have offended some people with his method.
In the last few days, Wiegand and his colleagues have been in intensive discussion – apparently in vain. The company is not fully up and running yet. Lilium boss Klaus Roewe hopes the start-up will provide “an opportunity for a new beginning” through self-administered insolvency proceedings. The board could then continue to run the company with around 1,000 employees under the supervision of an administrator and would have more time to attract new investors.