It is a fact that the future of new forms of transport is already here. Today we are more used to seeing fully electric vehicles on our streets, increasingly efficient, with greater autonomy and with the zero emissions label. Land and maritime transport has already taken that step and now the eyes are focused on the air where new systems and fully electric models are being developed.
This is precisely where the Aciturri group, of Burgos origin, will play an essential role, since it will be in charge of manufacturing the fuselage and wings of the new air-taxi models of the German company Lilium Jet. As Álvaro Fernández Baragaño highlights, CEO of Aciturri, this agreement is undoubtedly “good news” and will help alleviate the significant decrease in workload that the company is suffering as a result of the collapse in air traffic caused by Covid 19.
As Álvaro Fernández Baragaño explains, production will be distributed among the company’s plants located in the Burgos town of Miranda de Ebro, which will be in charge of manufacturing the auxiliary metal components, and Boecillo, in Valladolid, the center that will host the manufacturing and assembly in composite materials, both of the wings and the fuselage. Fernández Baragaño also points out that it is a “project under development for a completely new market and it will be necessary to see how it evolves. We currently have the capacity to reach a delivery rate of up to 200 aircraft per year. As soon as this rate is exceeded, we will make the necessary investments to adapt our capacity to the client’s needs ”.
The first five-seater prototype of this new fully electric Jet made its first flight tests in May 2019 and its main characteristic is that it can carry out the takeoff and landing maneuvers vertically thanks to its 36 electric ducted fans with acoustic coatings, capable of Capture and dissipate noise before the engine starts. This is to position itself as a faster alternative than land means for regional trips, with a very competitive price and with zero operating emissions.
Aciturri was born more than 40 years ago in Miranda de Ebro and little by little it has made its way as one of the reference companies for the manufacture and assembly of components for the aeronautical and aerospace sector. As its CEO points out, the commitment to improving its production processes is essential, “it is part of our DNA.” Something that if it was already important before the pandemic broke out, now it is even more so. “We have to take advantage of this moment to make our processes more competitive and come out of this crisis better prepared.”
The Boecillana and Mirandesa production plants are joined by another seven distributed in the provinces of Madrid, Álava, Seville and Gijón where they develop projects with companies such as Rolls Royce or Airbus. It is precisely in the latter that the current Lilium Program Manager, Yves Yemsi, worked for 16 years, which means that the relationship between the German company and the Burgos company has been forged from experience and collaboration. “(Yemsi) knows first-hand our capabilities to design and produce complex structures in composite materials. They are clear that they want to incorporate reliable partners into their project, to help them develop their prototype, but also to provide security when the time comes to mass-produce a high volume of units, ”highlights the CEO of Aciturri. In fact, the engineering teams of both companies have been collaborating for several months in the optimization of the design of the components that will leave the plants of the Burgos company, something that, according to Álvaro Fernández Baragaño the client «values in a special way and that I express the degree of involvement we have in this work ».
Thanks to the agreement with Lilium, the Burgos company makes the leap to one of the most promising markets and with the most development expectations, which is Regional Air Mobility, something that comes hand in hand with one of the priority objectives of the diversification strategy being carried out by the Burgos company. As the CEO of Aciturri points out, this new collaboration confirms the experience and capabilities necessary to be competitive in this new market, in addition to positioning them as industrial partners of one of the market’s leading projects and where projects are being developed. very competitive. This also opens a door to new opportunities and they do not rule out the possibility of making the “necessary investments to also grow in this business segment.”
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