COMAC's CE-25A electric aircraft has flown with people aboard for the first time, revealing that the full-scale 19-seat demonstrator had already been undergoing autonomous flight tests for months before it emerged publicly in October.
The aircraft took off from Binzhou Dagao Airport in China's Shandong province on November 14 carrying two pilots and a flight test engineer. According to Chinese state media citing COMAC, the CE-25A completed the planned test normally.
According to information released about the test, the aircraft spent 16 minutes and 38 seconds in the air and covered 37.5 miles (60.4 km). The complete test activity was reported to have lasted 57 minutes and 46 seconds.
Images and video released after the test show the full-size CE-25A flying over Binzhou. Until now, most publicly available photographs of the aircraft had shown it on the ground.
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The flight also provides new information about the CE-25A's development history. COMAC says the aircraft conducted its first uncrewed intelligent flight on February 2, 2026 and subsequently completed 19 autonomous flight verification tests before carrying people aboard.
According to that timeline, the full-scale aircraft had apparently been flying for almost nine months when photographs of it began circulating publicly in late October.
Scaled demonstrator came first
The CE-25A itself was not entirely new when the full-size aircraft appeared. COMAC unveiled the project in 2023 and had previously conducted flight testing using a scaled demonstrator.
That distinction initially made the status of the aircraft photographed in October unclear. At the time, there was no public confirmation that the full-size CE-25A had flown, despite the earlier testing associated with the program.
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The information released with the first crewed flight now indicates a separate sequence: scaled-model testing during the project's earlier development, followed by uncrewed flights of the full-size CE-25A beginning in February 2026 and the first flight with people aboard in November.
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COMAC describes the November 14 test as the aircraft's first “crewed intelligent flight.” The company has not detailed how control was divided between the pilots and the aircraft's automated systems during the flight, so it remains unclear how much of the mission was flown autonomously.
Electric aircraft for 19 passengers
The CE-25A is being developed as a 19-seat all-electric aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of about 22,000 lb (10 tonnes).
COMAC lists a cruise speed of around 186 mph (300 km/h), a cruise altitude of approximately 7,900 ft (2,400 m) and a range of about 249 miles (400 km).
One of the aircraft's most unusual characteristics is its distributed electric propulsion system. Multiple ducted propulsors are mounted above the wing rather than using the conventional two-engine arrangement normally found on regional aircraft.
The program brings together COMAC, battery manufacturer CATL and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, among other partners. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has already accepted the CE-25A's application for type certification.
The designation is the meaning of the project's purpose: “C” refers to China and COMAC, “E” to electric propulsion, and “25” to China's CCAR-25 certification standards for transport-category aircraft. The letter “A” identifies the first aircraft in the series.
