COMAC CE-25A electric airliner makes first crewed flight

COMAC’s 19-seat CE-25A electric airliner has made its first flight with people on board, two weeks after photos of the demonstrator surfaced online.

The flight took place in Binzhou, in China’s Shandong province, on Saturday 14 November, according to Chinese state media. Two pilots and a flight test engineer were on board, and COMAC said all systems operated normally.

The full test lasted about an hour, with the aircraft in the air for 16 minutes 38 seconds and covering 60.4km, according to CGTN.

Already flying without a crew

It was not the aircraft’s first time off the ground. Reports of the crewed flight say the CE-25A made its first autonomous, uncrewed flight on 2 February and has since completed 19 uncrewed test flights. That had not been made public when we reported on the photos in October.

The published specifications are a maximum take-off weight of about 10 tonnes, a cruising speed of 300km/h at around 2400m, and a range of about 400km. The CE-25A uses 10 electric ducted fans built into the wing, five on each side, in place of conventional propellers. COMAC has not released battery details.

Those figures are more conservative than the targets COMAC gave when it first showed the CE-25A as a model at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November 2023, which included a cruising speed of about 400km/h and a range of 400 to 500km.

China’s Civil Aviation Administration has accepted COMAC’s application for a type certificate, which starts the airworthiness review. That is a long way from approval to carry passengers, and no timeline has been given.

Who is building it

The CE-25A is COMAC’s first electric commercial aircraft and is intended for short intercity routes. According to Xinhua and Global Times, it has been developed jointly with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

COMAC is best known for the C919 narrowbody airliner, which entered commercial service with China Eastern in 2023. The CE-25A is a much smaller aircraft, in the 19-seat commuter class served by turboprops such as the Beechcraft 1900.