Author’s note — I caught up with WeFly last year at Aero Asia 2025 in Zhuhai. See: WeFly W280 Program Spotlights China’s Growing UAM Ecosystem in Aviation Week. I will be sitting down with the company soon for an upate.
The roll-out follows increased policy support from Chinese authorities for the low-altitude economy, with multiple companies advancing development of eVTOL aircraft for commercial urban transport. Video: WeFly
Qifei Aviation Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (齐飞航空科技（苏州）有限责任公司), operating as WeFly, announced today the roll-out of its full-scale five-seat piloted eVTOL aircraft, the W280, targeting the country’s major urban clusters for future air-taxi services.
The eVTOL has a maximum take-off weight of 2.8 tonnes (approximately 6,173 pounds) and a listed range of 280 km (174 miles), with a top speed of 280 km/h (174 mph).
It uses a composite-wing configuration and is built primarily from composite materials.
WeFly said the model is tailored for densely populated city clusters such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, aiming to provide connections between central business districts and major transport hubs.
The company added that its noise-suppression technology is designed to keep cruise noise below 50 decibels.
The startup has partnered with several AVIC subsidiaries to support the aircraft’s airworthiness certification process.