Overview
- The CE-25A carried two pilots and a flight-test engineer on its first crewed test in Binzhou, Shandong, with about 16 minutes and 38 seconds airborne covering roughly 60.4 kilometres on Saturday, November 14, 2026.
- Before the piloted flight the programme logged 19 unmanned autonomous validation tests, a sequence COMAC says laid the groundwork for human-onboard evaluations.
- COMAC describes the CE-25A as a roughly 10-tonne, 19-passenger regional plane that uses ten distributed electric ducted fans integrated into its wings and reports a cruising speed near 300 km/h and a range around 400 km.
- China’s Civil Aviation Administration has accepted COMAC’s type-certificate application, a formal regulatory step that does not equal a granted type certificate or permission for commercial passenger service.
- Key technical and operational questions remain unresolved, including battery capacity, charging logistics, energy use and thermal safety, and those unknowns will determine the aircraft’s usable range, operating costs and timetable for commercial flights.