AutoFlight says it has flown five eVTOL aircraft together in a single autonomous formation, mixing two weight classes and three different models.
The group was led by the company’s 5-ton V5000 Matrix and included four 2-ton aircraft: V2000CG CarryAll cargo and V2000CGF CarryAll firefighting variants. AutoFlight said the formation stayed together for 47 minutes, with the lead V5000 covering more than 133 km, and that no one intervened manually during the flight.
The demonstrations took place on October 31 and November 1 at AutoFlight’s Bailian Lake Flight Test Base in Kunshan, China. According to the company, strong winds on November 1 did not stop the aircraft from holding stable flight and safe horizontal and vertical spacing.
Guests included alumni of the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business, international eVTOL industry professionals, and AutoFlight customers and partners. Visitors also toured Sunship, the company’s water-based vertiport on Dianshan Lake, and watched the formation from the lakeside.
The flight builds on a three-aircraft formation AutoFlight flew in May 2026. The company describes the result as groundwork for future low-altitude transport networks that link long-haul, regional and last-mile routes. AutoFlight calls it a world first; eVTOL Byte has not independently verified that claim.
Source: AutoFlight via PR Newswire, November 5, 2026.
Photo: AutoFlight