Lilium Aerospace’s short-lived existence has ended in insolvency after the company failed to secure funding from its backers in time.
Revealing on 21 February that it had reached the end of the road, the company – formed late last year to acquire assets of two bankrupt Lilium subsidiaries – said as the “funding options” to secure its future “have not materialised in time, Lilium Aerospace has filed for insolvency today.
“While talks about alternative solutions are still ongoing, the chance for restructuring right now is highly unlikely and therefore operations will be stopped.”
The move would appear to spell the end for development of the Lilium Jet – an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft design for regional air mobility applications.
Although is not inconceivable the intellectual property embodied in the jet could still be acquired through a post-liquidation fire sale, bankruptcy lawyers will first have to sift through the wreckage to determine who actually owns what.
Lilium Aerospace – a vehicle for a consortium of European and North American investors - was supposed to take over the operations and assets of Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH after the two German businesses entered insolvency last autumn.
But given Lilium Aerospace’s difficulty in raising cash – employees have gone almost two months without wages – it is unclear if the money to fund the asset purchase has been paid to the administrators of Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH.
Lilium Aeropsace, then trading as Mobile Uplift Corporation, only emerged as a last-minute saviour for the two firms on 23 December as closure loomed.
