The Tianmu Kongka AL-100 short takeoff and landing cargo drone successfully completed its maiden flight.

Recently, the 400-kilogram class distributed power cargo drone AL-100 independently developed by Tianmu Kongka (Hangzhou) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. successfully completed its maiden flight and a series of flight test tasks in November 2025 after rigorous simulation, comprehensive system tests, and medium- and high-speed taxiing tests. The results of the maiden flight show that all the performance indicators of the AL-100 have reached and exceeded expectations, and the established test subjects have been successfully completed. It has preliminarily verified the overall design of the aircraft, the reliability of system integration, and the ability of short takeoff and landing with a large payload.

During this flight test, all systems of the AL-100 operated stably and were in good condition. The controllability during the flight process was stable, and the performance met the design expectations. The flight control and mission systems worked in coordination normally. Under the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) condition, the AL-100 completed a takeoff within 27.2 meters, and the maximum takeoff climb rate reached 10.5 m/s. All performance indicators reached the design specifications. It has fully verified the core technological advantages of large payload, short takeoff and landing, and high efficiency of this type of aircraft, laying a solid foundation for subsequent airworthiness and application verification.

As a cargo drone designed specifically for high-frequency, small-batch logistics, the AL-100 has a wingspan of 9.9 meters, a total length of 5.5 meters, and a total height of 2.1 meters. Its maximum takeoff weight is 350 kg, and its range is 300 kilometers. It is equipped with a 0.9-cubic-meter super-large cargo hold and a large-opening hatch on the nose. With the standardized sliding tray, it can achieve rapid loading and unloading of 100 kg of loose cargo. It can not only solve the pain points of truck restrictions and congestion in urban logistics and connect logistics distribution points but also build an aviation logistics lifeline with a 300-kilometer radiation circle for areas with inconvenient ground transportation such as islands and mountainous areas. It can also be modularly modified to mount photoelectric balls, fire extinguishing bombs, etc., to respond to emergency public service tasks such as forest fire prevention and flood control and disaster relief.

Since the official launch of the AL-100 model development in December 2024, the Tianmu Kongka team has successively completed the following R & D steps: the optimization and finalization of the integrated design of the aircraft's overall, power, and aerodynamics; the detailed design and strength verification of the structure; the production and static test of the airframe structure; the design of the avionics and flight control systems; the integration of the whole system and the test on the iron bird test rig; the design and simulation verification of the control law; the drop vibration test of the landing gear system and the taxiing test of the frame aircraft.

Through this maiden flight and subsequent multi-flight verification, the platform reliability, mission adaptability, and engineering deliverability of the AL-100 have been confirmed at this stage.

Tianmu Kongka will take this maiden flight as an important milestone, continue to promote the flight test of the AL-100 model, conduct targeted product optimization, finalization, and airworthiness compliance work, continuously refine the product performance and delivery ability, and accelerate its large-scale application.

Tianmu Kongka Team

This article is from the WeChat official account "Tianmu Kongka". The author is Tianmu Kongka. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.