Chinese electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft maker Shanghai AutoFlight has unveiled a new heavy-lift model it says boasts the world’s largest payload and longest range, reports Caixin.
The company on Thursday introduced the V5000 Matrix, an aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 5.7 tons that can carry a pilot and nine passengers. A hybrid version is designed to fly as far as 1,500 kilometers. On the same day, a full-scale prototype completed a successful transition flight—a critical milestone in which the aircraft switches from vertical takeoff to fixed-wing cruise mode.
Backed by battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), AutoFlight has pushed the V5000’s specifications to the upper bounds of China’s proposed regulatory framework, highlighting the race between technological ambition and rule-making in the country’s fast-developing low-altitude economy.