Good afternoon, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Lilium N.V.'s Q1 2022 business update conference call. My name is Geoffrey Richardson, Chief Financial Officer of Lilium. Before we start, let me get into a couple of housekeeping items. This is a virtual conference call, and for the moment, all participants are in listen-only mode. We'll first give an update on progress since our last call in March. There'll be time for questions after the formal presentation. We schedule the call for around 60 minutes, including Q&A time. Please note that this conference call is being recorded. A recording will be posted on Lilium's Investor Relations page soon after the event. As a reminder, after yesterday's market close, we posted our shareholder letter and a technology video on our website. We invite you to look at them.
Before handing over to our Chairman, Tom Enders, let me just give a reminder that our presentation will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States federal securities laws that are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause Lilium's actual results to differ materially from such statements. Please refer to the cautionary statement in our shareholder letter and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for more information on these risks. With us on this call today are our Chairman, Tom Enders, our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Wiegand, our Chief Technology Officer, Alastair McIntosh, our Chief Operating Officer and Head of Program, Yves Yemsi. Today, we want to start with an important update as Lilium moves into the next phase. Let me hand it over to you, Tom, our Chairman, for some words.
Thank you very much, Geoff. I'm happy to join all of you on this call. Ladies and gentlemen, usually chairman or chairpersons don't participate in investor calls, but we announced last week a change of a CEO and that is not business as usual. I was asked to say a few words in regards to the change of CEO at Lilium. Before I continue with that, some of you might know me as from my previous role at Airbus. You know that at the time I had a pretty strong focus on exit, on innovation, execution as well, of course. I leave it to others to judge to what extent I was successful or to what extent it was limited success.
Anyway, when Daniel asked me about one and a half years ago whether I wanted to join Lilium in a advisory role, at the time, we had no Board, we were not at Nasdaq, we had an advisory council. I have to say I did not you know hesitate for long because I had Lilium on my radar screen as Airbus CEO for quite a few years. I have to say I was absolutely thrilled by the bold vision that Daniel and his co-founders and the company was exposing to build the first full electric eVTOL aircraft. It was this vision and this pioneering spirit that really did draw me to Lilium.
As you all know, in those seven years since 2015, Lilium has grown from, yeah, kind of a garage startup, even though Daniel, I don't think you started in a garage, to a listed company with an exceptional management team and a very unique, and I believe now I will hear about that a little later on this call, very robust eVTOL design. Today, Lilium stands really on the cusp of a, if I may say, new phase. The company's development aircraft has successfully conducted the preliminary design review. That is, we believe we have a robust design and can now go into and actually do contracting suppliers. The testing is progressing very well. Some of you, or hopefully all of you, have seen the video that was posted yesterday about the recent flights in Spain, the video footage.
The vision that Daniel and his co-founders set out is fast becoming reality. Now let me say, all of you probably know it, different phases of a life of a company require different skills, different leadership skills. This is why the board at the end of last year began searching for a new chief executive officer, by the way, very much supported, if I may say, even initiated by Daniel himself. Ladies and gentlemen, we did not just quickly try to find a CEO. We had a very comprehensive, long, worldwide search for the best person to head Lilium in its new phase. We arrived at Klaus Roewe and announced that he will take on the role as chief executive officer from August first onwards. Klaus Roewe will be joining Lilium on August first.
We, that means the Board, and I think also the management, I'm convinced also the management by now, are convinced that Klaus is the right guy to drive Lilium's transition from the, well, I can't say startup anymore. I mean, we have 700 and growing people. Small company, but a Nasdaq-listed company already to a VTOL leader, I would think the VTOL, eVTOL leader worldwide. We think Klaus is the right guy to do that. Klaus brings an outstanding track record in delivering results and executing on aircraft programs, and that is certainly something I can testify on because I worked with Klaus Roewe for more than 10 years, quite closely.
In most of his years, he was leading the most important program at Airbus, the A320 family program, and he led that program with huge success. I know there has been concern. We heard that from analysts after the announcement last week about innovation. Will innovation suffer at Lilium? Well, I'm convinced that innovation will not at all suffer in Lilium. Let me first say, Klaus Roewe is an excellent manager, executing programs from the engineering phase through production, leading a huge program with huge success. In the previous three years, he was the Airbus leader of the services. That means the worldwide services, product support, maintenance of the Airbus fleet. He was not just a great manager. Throughout his career, he has initiated and implemented a great many innovations.
When I think about his introduction of automotive production technologies at Airbus, this was a very novel thing with a lot of resistance at Airbus initially. His strong support, his leadership in transiting to a digitally connected plane at Airbus. His vision to expand the range, the performance of the A321, which is now the leader within the Airbus 320 family. I could go on for probably at least half an hour to talk about his successes, but I just wanted to highlight this is not a contradiction if you are a great manager and executor of programs and an innovator. Innovation obviously without execution is meaningless. The two are not a contradiction.
I'm absolutely convinced that Klaus's proven track record in implementing, in initiating and speeding up innovation, will have increasing value for the company and for the customers and, investors. I talked already about Klaus' success in the single-aisle program at Airbus. Let me just say, he. Under great pressure because the 320 program was the most important program of the entire Airbus group. He improved the market share, obviously, together with the teams, the sales teams and others. The aircraft profitability, very important. Free cash flow generation job. I think these are things that are important also for a small company. In short, under Klaus' leadership, the A320 family became one of the world's most successful ever commercial aircraft, programs.
Ladies and gentlemen, Klaus, I'm happy to answer any questions. As I said, I worked with the guy for more than 10 years. When we did our search process, we didn't just jump to the conclusion that Klaus is the right guy. We looked worldwide and arrived at the unanimous decision by the Board to pick Klaus Roewe to lead Lilium going forward. He will drive the program management. He will execute also on our very important certification campaign, we'll hear about that a little later, I think by Yves or by Alastair. We'll be making good progress. Collaborate with our suppliers, tier one suppliers, effectively, and certainly deliver value to our customers eventually.
Let's not forget, prepare together with Daniel the expansion of our product portfolio by eventually scaling up the aircraft or scaling up the platform. This is why I believe, and as I said, the whole board believes, we found the right person to lead Lilium into this new phase. Of course, we must not lose the momentum on innovation. That's why I'm delighted, and we all at the board are delighted that Daniel was very active on the one hand in helping us to find the right CEO to lead the company going forward. At the same time, stay on our Board, and will continue to spearhead our activities on new technologies, products, innovation in his new role as Chief Engineer for Innovation and Future Programs.
I stop here, and if I may, Daniel, hand over to you, and, I'm sure you can explain a little better, what your important new role at Lilium will be. Daniel?
Thank you, Tom. Lilium was founded with an important mission, to revolutionize regional aviation by making it entirely sustainable and more accessible than it is today. Fulfilling this mission requires the brightest minds in aerospace and technology to come together and deliver numerous innovations. Lilium has proven its capacity for radical solutions like no other player in our sector. We have successfully designed and tested an entirely novel, fully electric vertical takeoff and landing jet with many underlying innovations in engines, batteries, flight physics, and software control. These innovations are the foundation for any electric jet platform from electric business jets and regional electric airliners to eVTOL jets and personal electric aircraft. We want to leverage this unique position of Lilium and target scaling our technologies over multiple platforms with larger form factors to serve the entire segment of regional electric aviation.
Lilium will continue to push boundaries with new programs and innovations that will reduce costs for our customers and passengers and will ultimately lead into fully software driven and connected autonomous aircraft. Our ambition is to cut trip times to a fraction of what they are today, opening up a new level of connectivity for societies around the planet. I am delighted that we were able to attract Klaus Roewe as our new CEO. This brings us an unparalleled execution capability, as Tom has just laid out and allows me in my new role to fully focus on the innovative future of the company. It makes Lilium an ideal blend of aerospace know-how and innovation. Over to you, Geoff.
Thank you, Daniel. We also want to highlight the significant program, aircraft design, certification and customer traction we've achieved this year. We've conducted a successful preliminary design review, which is a meaningful milestone in aircraft development. It confirms the Lilium Jet can meet the targeted technical and commercial requirements while meeting the certification standards set by regulators. We're now moving to the industrialization phase of the program. We've started sharing detailed design data and contracting with additional major tier one aerospace suppliers such as DENSO, Aernnova, and Honeywell. The next phase leads us to assembly of our conforming aircraft in 2023, prior to our final flight test campaign. In a critical achievement, our chosen battery cell technology has been secured and the performance needed for our mission profiles has been independently verified. Initial production of these cells has commenced at our partner CustomCells.
In addition, we're making meaningful progress with EASA, whose approach has been constructive. In 2020, we achieved the certificate, the certification basis milestone CRI-A01, the equivalent of the FAA G-1. In 2022, we aim to conclude the full agreement of the certification program with EASA, which includes means of compliance, the equivalent of the FAA G-2. Flight activity in Spain has significantly increased, and we marked a historic achievement with main wing transition last week. On the heels of our NetJets and four-passenger club cabin announcements, we're seeing significant interest from the premium segment. This confirms that our spacious cabin and proprietary jet propulsion are uniquely suited for the premium segment. In summary, all of these achievements combine to confirm that our chosen Lilium Jet design is capable of achieving the required mission profiles and business plan while meeting certification standards.
Before handing it over to my colleagues, Alastair and Yves, who will share more details, let me give you a brief financial update. Given the macro environment, we continue to maintain and increase our tight budgetary control. The total cash spend of $67 million in Q1 2022 was lower than the previous Q4 2021 spend of $73 million. Our liquidity as of March 31st stood at $331 million. We're closely monitoring the effects of the conflict in Europe, COVID and general economic factors on our business and planning, but we expect the total cash spend in Q2 2022 to be broadly in line with the Q1 total cash spend.
The planned advance of our development program through the detailed design and industrialization phase is expected to lead to increased spending and supplier contracting for the latter half of 2022, which will result in a moderate rise in total cash spending in Q3 and Q4 2022 as planned. Having said that, we expect the full year total cash spend to be approximately $265 million. In June of this year, Lilium established an equity line of credit, an ELOC facility with Tumim Stone Capital. The facility will enable Lilium to sell an aggregate amount of up to $75 million in new Lilium Class A ordinary shares to Tumim. The ELOC allows us to leverage the liquidity in our stock while giving us flexibility around issuance timing to minimize dilution.
With that, I'll hand it over to Alastair, who will update you on the aircraft's refined design.
Thank you, Geoff. Good morning and afternoon to everyone. I'm glad to be joining you all today. After a rigorous preliminary design review with the involvement of external aerospace experts, former chief engineers and program heads of major aircraft programs, we have converged on an optimum Lilium Jet design. We are confident we have a truly disruptive platform that provides the basis of a product family with a larger addressable market and better customer experience than more traditional designs, and which we believe can be profitably built at scale. Let me walk you through the design improvements agreed. On landing gear, we've made the decision to add a traditional landing gear, giving pilots a backup option of a short-running landing alongside the standard vertical landing.
At any point prior to starting the vertical landing, sufficient energy reserves remain for the aircraft to divert to an alternate landing site and perform a short running landing. The much lower power demand of this running landing allows more battery cell energy to be accessed than would otherwise be possible with a higher powered vertical landing. Integrating forward landing capability therefore gives our customers additional reassurance of safety, flexibility, and operating range. On fuselage aerodynamics. To save on weight without compromising on cabin volume and passenger comfort, we've optimized the fuselage shape. By reducing redundant space, we'll be able to decrease the overall fuselage length. This reduces material and weight while still offering outstanding comfort in the premium four-passenger club cabin or the six-passenger shuttle configuration, and allows for a future cargo variant. On electric jet engines.
With a 10% increase in engine diameter, we were able to reduce the number of engines from 36 to 30, with nine now on each main wing and six on each of the forward canard wings. This modification will simplify design and reduce weight and cost while providing even greater flight stability. The modification also enables us to accommodate more acoustic damping in the jet ducts. Also, we're really pleased with our progress on batteries. After evaluating dozens of candidate cells over several years, we've selected a cell technology from Zenlabs that provides optimal power density as well as energy density. The cell delivers the power density required for vertical takeoff and landing, and the energy density needed for range of regional missions.
Independent testing data confirms this technology is capable of delivering the power and energy necessary for the Lilium Jet to achieve 250 km of physical range and approximately 175 km of projected operating range. We believe this cell design is one of the highest performing cells for practical use in eVTOL aircraft in existence today, and it will be exclusive to Lilium for use in regional commercial eVTOL applications. With this, it's over to Yves, who will tell you about the next phase of the program.
Thank you, Alastair. Thanks to all these design changes which are aimed at type certification and the ability to profitably scale production, we are now moving towards assembly of the first conforming aircraft, which is due to start in 2023. Recognizing the importance of a productive collaboration with our supply chain, we hosted our first Lilium Supplier Day on March 31st, 2022, where we had 74 current and prospective suppliers coming to our headquarters in Germany. Lilium just announced a major collaboration with Honeywell, our avionics partner and investor, together with the automotive giant DENSO, for the co-development and manufacture at scale of the high-performance electric motor system called e-motor. This agreement leverages the two companies' respective aerospace expertise and automotive volume production competence.
The innovative e-motor system, on which the companies have been working for nearly two years, is expected to bring exceptional performance and reliability with zero operating emissions. Its air-cooled design has the potential to significantly reduce aircraft operating costs, and it also boasts industry-leading power density with the first prototype e-motors designed to extract over 100 kW of power from a system weighing just over 40 kg. We have also now entered into a long-term supply agreement with leading aerostructure suppliers, Aernnova, to design, manufacture, and provide support for the Lilium Jet's innovative propulsion mounting system, which is a streamlined flap structure for the main wing and canard airfoil. Built in lightweight materials such as carbon fiber composite materials, the system houses both the engine that powers the aircraft and also the vectoring system that enables vertical and horizontal flight.
For battery volume production, CustomCells has been selected as our chosen industrial partner to build the cells on the basis of the Zenlabs technology. Initial production of our cells started at CustomCells in February 2022. Now an important point to note is that as batteries and other technologies improve, we plan to upgrade the Lilium Jet's performance continuously, offering significant range and performance upgrades to our customers over time, in line with our vision to scale the aircraft and extend the product family. Lilium also recently signed a collaboration agreement with Livent, one of the largest producer worldwide of lithium products for the battery cell industry. Based upon the agreement, Lilium and Livent will work together on innovative lithium applications for high-performance cells. This collaboration also reflects Lilium's strong positioning with one of the major suppliers of responsibly sourced lithium.
With that, it's back to Alastair, who will tell you about the certification progress and our flight testing with Phoenix 2.
Thanks, Yves. Lilium is closely cooperating with its primary airworthiness authority, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, to progress towards certification. EASA approach is proving highly constructive. The EASA certification basis is especially designed for small eVTOL aircraft. Lilium received its EASA certification basis in 2020. It's the equivalent of the FAA G-1. Lilium has already come a step closer to its next important EASA milestone, which represents the equivalent of the FAA G-2. We aim to reach this by the end of 2022. Lilium is pursuing concurrent validation of the aircraft with the FAA under the provisions of the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement between the U.S. and the EU. In addition, Lilium successfully completed its second Design Organization Approval audit with the EASA. Lilium is seeking now to shift the schedule forward.
The third DAO audit is planned for later this year. On May 25th, Lilium hosted a high-level delegation from EASA at Lilium's facility in southern Germany to see the progress Lilium is making with certification, organization, and our engineering, testing, and manufacturing facilities. Which leads me nicely into flight testing. We're delighted to say that we've achieved transition on the main wing. Transition is the important and technically challenging phase behind the vertical lift phase and the highly efficient wing-borne flight phase. Let's just relish that moment one more time. If we can see the video, please.
Lift off. Flight is proactive. Clarity 30 70. 10 degrees flight positive. Stay on two, three. Leveling off. Decelerating. Descend 10 degrees flight positive. 10 degrees flight positive. Descend. Descending. Reducing speed. Position is good to land. Touchdown. Ground more active.
Our engineering teams were hugely thrilled to see the demonstrator aircraft's exceptionally smooth and stable behavior in achieving this goal. The successful main wing transition is a massive validation of our flight physics models and our overall technology approach. We believe this represents the first successful transition of a full-scale electric jet aircraft from hover to wing-borne flight in history. Our Phoenix 2 demonstrator is successfully performing the predefined flight plan in Spain. Having completed the first phase in April this year, with flights at up to 50 knots, the aircraft has increased speed to 70 knots and doubled the number of flights per week. The Phoenix 2 flight test campaign delivers important validation of the Lilium Jet design. At technical level, the results of the demonstrator flights confirm the accuracy of our computational fluid dynamics and the data we have gained also through our wind tunnel testing.
More broadly, these flights demonstrate in a real-world environment the viability, efficiency, and revolutionary potential of our architecture. With that, I'll now hand you back to Daniel, who will now summarize and give a short outlook.
Thanks, Alastair. As described by my colleagues, Lilium has made significant progress this year in advancing the aircraft development as planned. We've successfully conducted our PDR, and we are now moving to the industrialization with our supply chain partners together. As an outcome, we have demonstrated that our unique Lilium Jet architecture is on track to achieve the targeted performance for our launch customers while meeting the agreed certification standards of our authorities. Our technology has also been validated by functional testing and most recently by the historic transition flight that we just saw in the video. Importantly, we have independently validated that our high-performance battery cell technology achieves the energy and power requirements of our target mission. Lilium has filed over 70 patents, and recently 37 of them were published by the European Patent Office. Innovation will continue to be a central focus for Lilium and for myself personally.
My passion as an aerospace engineer is to keep Lilium on the cutting edge of technology, and my new role will give me the space to do that. What is next? Going forward, we will introduce our new CEO, Klaus Roewe, to all of you, our stakeholders, investors, and analysts. Now that COVID is hopefully behind us, we would like to invite you to visit our Munich headquarters and our flight test center that you just saw in the video in Spain. Please get in touch if this is of interest. Later this fall, we will be hosting a live Capital Markets Day, and we will now be sharing detailed design data with our suppliers as part of the industrialization phase of the program. As mentioned earlier, our aim is to agree the full certification program with EASA by the end of this year.
This is the equivalent of an FAA G-2. We'll continue flight testing as ever, and we'll be conducting high speed flights above 100 knots in the coming weeks and months. Lastly, we would welcome you to join us at Farnborough International Airshow in July, where we will be meeting with the industry. Now let me hand you over again to Geoff, and he will open the floor to your questions.
Thank you, Daniel. Now we have some time to take your questions. Please introduce yourself with your name and company. As a reminder, to ask a question during the session, please press star one on your telephone. If you're watching the webcast in parallel, please mute the sound of your laptop while you're asking the question. We will now begin the Q&A session.
Thank you. The first question comes from the line of Colin Rusch from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you so much, guys. You know, can you talk a little bit about the impact of the wing transition with your partners? You know, has the dynamic changed with those folks and their willingness to partner and invest in incremental resources as they've seen the validation of the technology in that way?
Yves manages many of our suppliers. Yves, maybe you could take that one.
Yeah. Thank you. I think many of our partners were already quite faithful that, you know, we would be achieving that. They know the skills of our engineers. We haven't seen a step change right now. I think what matters more for our partners is that as we have completed the preliminary design review, we are now sharing more and working more with them in the detailed design phase. That is very important. This is what we shared with all current and potential prospective suppliers when we pulled them together here in Munich in March to have our Lilium Supplier Day, specifically to share that momentum and the next phase.
Okay, that's helpful. With the engine development program, there's been a lot of discussion around materials in batteries. I'm curious about how much innovation on the engine you guys are looking at and security of supply around some of the critical elements of those engines that you guys are working on right now and how important the partnerships are in procuring those materials and in designing them.
Yeah. I'll stay on this one, if I may. We are aware of the shortages of materials that are affecting different elements and potential risk around batteries. We've been securing with our contracts, of course, with our battery manufacturing. We have been securing our volumes throughout 2026, but we are also looking beyond our tier one and seeing what is the supply condition. That was one of the drivers behind us closing an agreement with Livent and a collaboration agreement with Livent.
Livent is a very big supplier of lithium, and we know that lithium is a product which a lot of people consider at risk in terms of supply assurance. Also partnering with Honeywell and DENSO, you can imagine that these companies have a size and a leverage which is beyond the one that Lilium would have in the market. That gives us some fairly good confidence that we are able to weather the supply chain disruptions.
Okay. I'll take the rest offline. Thanks so much, guys.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Alex Potter from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
Perfect. Thanks very much. One question I had was on the battery cell chemistry. Obviously, you're focusing a lot on energy density. It's important for range, and there's power density, which is important for the takeoff and the landing. I guess I'm interested in how you're getting comfort around cycle life and the longevity of the cells themselves, particularly in sort of real-world applications where you have, you know, some external factors, say, vibration or other things that might be difficult to simulate in a laboratory environment. I'm interested in how you're getting comfort around particularly those cell longevity and cycle life topics.
I can. You want me to take that one, Aster? I can go ahead and please complete that.
Yeah, please.
I think one of the important aspects is that we were sharing with our potential suppliers a very clear set of requirements, which included not only the energy density and the power density, but some of the qualifiers for us were cycle life and also the speed of charging. That was one of the criteria for us that came into play when we selected the Zenlabs technology. We will continue to work with Zenlabs, continue to improve that, but the first indication in terms of aging are very satisfactory. To your point, we have different ways to test aging, and you can do the 1C charge-discharge rate, which is usual and when people publish data, most notably for the automotive industry.
The testing activity that we are performing now are really matching closer our flight profiles, so we want to get more clarity, and we see some good indications so far.
Okay, great. Thanks very much. Also one other sort of maybe technical question. You'd mentioned this short running landing functionality which you added. I'm interested in knowing if that was something that you had planned on adding all along, or was it something that you added based on feedback either from regulators or from prospective partners? You know, maybe it was something that you added because energy density maybe wasn't what you thought it would be for the battery. Just any other sort of rationale behind why you added that functionality would be interesting.
Can I take that one? Yeah, relatively, I mean, it's something that's always been a potential. I think as you get more and more into the detailed design and you understand the implications of designing an aircraft for that capability, it doesn't. You don't have to deviate very far from where we previously were. So it just gives us more flexibility. Now, what it brings, obviously, we do get access to more energy within the cell as a direct result of that, because when you're performing such a maneuver, it's relatively low in terms of its energy demand. So you can take advantage of that. Certainly you've got to ensure no matter which situation you're in, you land with sufficient reserves.
It gives you more comfort, it gives you more capability, it gives you more opportunity. Also, you know, clearly you've got to plan that into your flight planning as well. We've had a good look through all that. It's kinda just going through the process and understanding what the capability could be, and then how we want to lock it into the design. As we've optimized around our frames, our structure, we actually saw that there's a relatively minor offset, on any weight and such like. It just seemed like a win-win, as it gives us more flexibility, and ultimately it gives us more range.
Okay, perfect. Last one, for me, just noticed there wasn't any commentary in the letter on any developments you may be having with regard to infrastructure, you know, site selection, construction, anything related to, I guess, the infrastructure in your initial launch regions would be helpful as well. Thanks, guys.
Yeah, I'll take that. We're progressing quite well in Florida as we've announced. I think we had previously announced a deal with Ferrovial on the infrastructure, and I think at the last call, we announced that West Palm Beach International was the first vertiport to receive a permit. They continue to work on the infrastructure on our behalf, and they're continuing permitting. We're also looking at infrastructure sites in Europe and other regions. I think we'll have more of that to discuss shortly, Alex. It's progressing. No major new announcements because we have our partners secured, and they're just kinda cranking away at permitting and site selection right now.
Okay, perfect. Thanks, Geoff.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Adam Forsyth from Longspur Research. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Just looking at the video, it looked to me like there's some vectoring going on during what looked like the cruise phase of the flight. I just wonder, is that correct? Or maybe it was just my bad eyesight looking at the video.
I'll take that one, guys. Yeah, Adam, that is normal. That's supposed to be anticipated. You'll always get perturbations in the air around, and indeed, the flight control laws are designed in a way to cater for that, which means that you'll have a stable flight experience if you're sitting in the cabin. Clearly, if you put the, you know, if you put the spotlight on, you'll see some minor movements. Not dissimilar actually to a traditional fixed wing aircraft, where you have flexing of the wing tips if you're sitting in the fuselage looking out, similar sort of thing, where the aircraft itself adjusts to what's going on around it.
Yeah, that's the beauty of the flight test program, where we get the opportunity to see how it behaves. Clearly, going through transition, the biggest, you know, the hardest technical phase that we have in the flight cycle, to see how well the aircraft actually behaves at that point is tremendous. Yeah, it's really good. Handling really well. You can see the bank turns, accelerating, climbing, descents. At this stage, we cannot be happier with what we're seeing from the flight test.
Great. Good. Then I don't have to visit the optician. That's good. Just on the Livent deal, are you gonna seek any similar deals on sustainable sourcing of battery materials other than lithium? Related to that, does your silicon anode technology retain a significant graphite content?
I think I'm not going to go into the specifics of the, probably the silicon anode and the graphite content. I think that would be too much to disclose. I can tell you that we continue to work with the supply chain. There is a lot of evolution, as I mentioned. We have dedicated teams working on different technologies. We are very confident that today, Zenlabs' technology is really a massive achievement and really sets us apart. We will continue. Our teams are continuing to look into the new technologies. You know, we all know that people are talking about lithium metal or solid state. We keep an eye on these ones very actively.
As we have explained, we would want our platform to be able to evolve with time as we can integrate new battery technologies, of course, subject to rigorous qualification and certification of the program. So multiple.
Great. Got it.
On the-
Great. Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of David Zazula from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for taking my question. I guess first circling back to the battery, the battery range you guys are quoting is, you know, a little different than what you had been quoting, you know, call it six, nine months ago. I guess can you maybe talk a little bit about the drivers behind this change and, you know, whether you feel like, you know, this current iteration of the technology is gonna allow you to really leverage the advantages of the ducted fan design?
Should I take that one?
Sure.
I think we've been targeting the physical capability of the aircraft, you know, 155 mi or 250 km. The test results that we've currently seen, you know, get us to that point on pure physical. When we then have to take into account the usable, what we have to apply then is our best understanding of certification requirements for reserves and such like. You have to dial that back such that you're always landing with sufficient reserve, untouched. You have this difference then between your physical range and your usable range. That's why you see some differences in the numbers.
Now, it has to be said, this is to the best of our understanding at this point in time. Clearly, we work very closely with EASA, and this is an area in particular where some of the rule making is still being defined in the detail level, so around if it means compliance. I can't complain, I think we're working really well with them. I would anticipate later this year we will get further clarity from the EASA team about exactly what the requirements will be for holding of reserves. You know, from the test results that we've seen so far, from Zenlabs via Energy Assurance, we could not be happier. It's quite good.
On the addition of the forward landing gear, is the initial concept that you would only be landing, you know, within a certain range of, you know, a runway or equivalent that would allow you to use that landing gear? Or do you feel like you're still, you know, not as restricted in your landing area?
Well, you will have to provision, you know, your alternate place of landing. Just to sort of put it in the calibration, I think, a little bit, but probably, you know, we still got to do the finessing of the absolute numbers, but we're probably in the region of something like 150 meter, so 450 foot runway length in the dry. Again, as we extend the range, then we'll be making sure that as that goes forward, the flight planning takes this into consideration.
Awesome. I don't know if Tom is still on the call, but if he is he able to, you know, discuss the specific qualities that the board was looking for in a new CEO and, you know, how he was able to meet those qualities?
Yeah, happy to speak to it again. As I said, we did a worldwide search with a renowned firm, and what we're looking for is somebody with extensive experience, obviously, in execution, extensive experience in engineering, but particularly program management, manufacturing. As we heard a couple of times today, the next phase will be moving after the flight testing into the industrialization. That experience will be particularly valuable. If possible, I mean, if you look at the whole life cycle and somebody who understands the aftermarket, who understands the services needs of our customers, and at the same time, is somebody who has been working on innovation, has been introducing innovation, be it, as I said, in the production process or in moving to a more digital world in aerospace.
I'd like to say that, you know, sometimes it seems some people think that innovation and aerospace are polar opposites. Nothing could be further from reality, because for most of the last seven, eight decades, the aerospace industry has been one of the most innovative industries in the world. If you look today, on the one end, aviation, the move towards electrical aircraft, hydrogen projects, et cetera. If you look at space, which has been an explosion of innovation in the last five to 10 years, think about SpaceX, but lots of other startups as well. This is not polar opposites. Innovation and aerospace go together, and to find somebody who has great experience in execution and at the same time has introduced various innovations throughout his active management careers, that's the kind of person we were looking for.
Of course, somebody with great people's leadership skills as well. I have to say, Klaus Roewe ticked all the boxes, so he was by far the best candidate, we could find after an extensive search.
Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Thank you. There are no more questions from the analysts. Please continue.
Okay. With that, we have a number of questions that were sent in by Lilium shareholders through our retail platform. We think it's really important that we spend a bit of time on these calls answering those. The following question got a lot of votes. What is the status of the U.S. expansion, Palm Beach, Florida? Lilium is really excited about Florida. We selected it on a number of criteria. Has a long history of aerospace innovation, a very welcoming and favorable political environment, and has great weather. From a business perspective, has a lot of tourists, a lot of congestion in certain areas, lack of infrastructure. We've previously announced three partners for Florida, Ferrovial and Tavistock on the infrastructure, and NetJets will be doing the flight operations on our behalf.
I think in the upcoming quarter, we'll spend more time and give kind of people a deeper dive on our business in Florida. Florida is progressing quite well. Very excited about it. Here's another question. I think, Alastair, this one is for you. What impact do you expect from the changed FAA certification approach?
It's a great question, actually. So I think firstly, we should be clear. We still actually await further clarification of the detail that has to come forward. What does this actually mean from the FAA? Now, EASA is our lead agency for certification, and we've been making great progress with them for a number of years now. Early engagements were way back in 2016. So we've been working very closely. EASA has taken a different approach from the FAA in as much as they've set out certification requirements, SC-VTOL, and for the propulsion system, SC E-19 or EHPS. They're specifically designed for small eVTOL aircraft. That's what we've fundamentally been working with.
Now, the FAA's approach has been more taking existing, in particular Part 23 regulations, and considering each design, on its merit and coming up with, special conditions in appropriate manner. What we appear to be seeing, and again, this is purely, you know, we need to see if this comes out in fruition, but what we seem to be seeing is potentially a shift away from the FAA's original approach, relying on existing regulation and law, and they may be moving to something more specific and well-defined for this sector, which is akin then to what EASA have already been doing. From an industry perspective, if it tends to go that way, actually harmonization is a really good thing.
For some it may be a little painful at this point in time, but actually it'll be genuinely good for the industry. If it goes that way, I would welcome it. I would also say that our jet from what we can see so far, at least certainly with the EASA and the dialogue that we've been having with the FAA, we can feel well positioned, should that be the outcome.
All right, Daniel, I think this one's for you. Will you start posting your progress on YouTube and other social media?
Thanks, Jeff. Yes, with the new phase that we're entering, we'll probably dial up even more the communication and share more activities. I think I'd like to encourage investors to frequently visit our website and subscribe to our newsletters. We have recently already gotten into the cadence of weekly publishing flight test videos, more tech blogs, and we will certainly continue doing so and dial this up, anything from progress and flight testing, but also commercial agreements, supplier partnerships and LinkedIn posts, et cetera. Stay tuned.
Thanks, Daniel. Last question. What sort of digital services will Lilium provide? I'll take that one. First of all, we see digital services being quite important for our customers and for us having significant revenue and margin potential. As you may recall, we announced a partnership with Palantir, which has been going quite well, and those guys are really black belts in this area, as well as being black belts in aerospace. We're integrating their full suite on the value chain, including around engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, aircraft operations. Important specific examples include, you know, battery monitoring, predictive maintenance, and other services. We continue to be very excited about the value that Palantir brings to us, both in the engineering development program and the future customer suite.
They've been a great partner, and this is a really unique add to our offerings. With that, I think that is our last question. We've come to the end of our Q1 2022 business update. Thank you once again for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you again soon. Special thanks to our Chairman, Tom Enders, for joining us today. It's much appreciated. I'm sure everyone appreciated hearing the thought process that came with the selection of Klaus. Cheers, everyone.