Captain Andreas Pfisterer

Head of Operations and Flight Crew Training, Lilium GmbH

Training Challenges for the New eVTOL Aviation

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) or Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) with all its various VTOL aircraft and with its worldwide footprint is launching a new era of aviation and with this new era comes a huge demand for VTOL pilots to safely fly passenger and cargo across global markets.

We are at a changing point in aviation. We must look at this new industry as a clean sheet approach and opportunity for pilot training and innovative training systems. The amount of pilots to be trained will require the industry to push for new training tools, technologies and methodologies to shift the training towards being more affordable and scalable while keeping safety at the highest priority for the unique challenges of Innovative Air Mobility.

Yes, there are plans in the market to have the VTOL aircraft transition to fully autonomous, but this will be a long term goal because of technology issues, regulatory concerns, and public acceptance.

Until autonomous operation of hundreds and thousands of vehicles above and between cities will become reality, the industry will create thousands of jobs. It is our challenge to crew these aircraft using the most efficient training system.

This presentation will give some insights into Lilium, to the type of operation and the relevant challenges that will need to be solved on our way to type certification, focusing on new ways of training, including innovative training devices and qualification strategy.

Pilot Conference
Day 2 – Wednesday 9th November 2022
Session 8 – 1630-1800