China’s electric airliner era starts with a 19-seat plane and 400 km of range
COMAC’s CE-25A, China’s 19-seat battery-electric commuter plane, flew with a crew for the first time on Saturday in Binzhou, Shandong. Two pilots and a flight test engineer were aboard the roughly 10-tonne demonstrator, and COMAC says every system worked normally.
It wasn’t the plane’s first flight. The CE-25A had already completed 19 autonomous test flights with nobody on board since February 2, and China’s aviation regulator is now reviewing it for a type certificate.