BINZHOU, China (The Thursday Times) — China’s first electric commercial aircraft, the 19-seat CE-25A, completed its first flight with a crew on board on Saturday, according to its maker, the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
Two pilots and a flight test engineer took the 10-tonne aircraft up over Binzhou in the eastern province of Shandong. The test lasted 57 minutes and 46 seconds, 16 minutes and 38 seconds of it in the air, and the aircraft covered 60.4 kilometres.
COMAC said the aircraft performed normally and that all its test indicators met expectations.
The flight follows the CE-25A’s first uncrewed, autonomous flight on February 2. The aircraft has made 19 uncrewed test flights so far, according to the company.
Built for short hops between cities
The CE-25A is designed for commercial flights between cities. It can carry 19 passengers, has a maximum take-off weight of 10 tonnes, and is meant to cruise at 300 kilometres an hour at an altitude of 2,400 metres, with a range of 400 kilometres.
It is driven by a distributed system of electric ducted fans mounted on its wings, rather than by conventional propellers or jet engines.
COMAC says each part of the name has a meaning. The “C” stands for both China and COMAC, the “E” for electric, and “25” for the Part 25 airworthiness rules of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the same safety standard that applies to large passenger jets. The “A” marks the first model in the series.
A step towards certification
COMAC developed the aircraft with CATL, the world’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and other partners.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has accepted COMAC’s application for a type certificate, the approval an aircraft design needs before it can carry paying passengers. No date has been given for the CE-25A to enter service.
COMAC is best known for the C919 narrow-body jet, which entered commercial service with China Eastern Airlines in 2023. Beijing has made the so-called low-altitude economy, from delivery drones to electric air taxis, a policy priority in recent years, and the CE-25A is COMAC’s first step into electric passenger flight.
