China Is Preparing To Test Its AG600, The World’s Biggest Amphibious Plane

09 April, 2020

REUTERS/Stringer: China’s AG600, the world’s largest amphibious aircraft, during its maiden flight in Zhuhai, Guangdong province,

• Work on the prototype of China’s AG600 amphibious plane are back to full capacity in Hubei as the aircraft prepares for first maritime flight, according to state media.
• The size of a Boeing 737, the aircraft can collect water for firefighting and perform patrol and rescue operations at sea.
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China is making up for time lost during the coronavirus outbreak by resuming preparations to test its largest amphibious aeroplane, which will be able to cover all of the South China Sea, state media has reported.

The prototype of AG600 “Kunlong” amphibious aircraft is being worked on in Jingmen — in the outbreak’s initial epicentre of Hubei province — and will have its maiden maritime flight later this year from Zhuhai, neighbouring Hong Kong, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

The project had been suspended for over a month due to the Covid-19 epidemic in Hubei, and the prototype plane was at risk of damage without maintenance. Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) sent a reinforcement team to Hubei in mid-March, during the province’s lockdown, to start preparing for tests of the plane, according to CCTV. The developers in AVIC’s Hubei subsidiaries have now resumed working at full capacity.

“Now the plane is in good condition,” Lu Yang, deputy head of the AG600 project at the Jingmen site, told CCTV. “We are all working overtime and making up for the lost time. I believe this [sea-based trial] can be done within this year. No problem.”

The AG600 combines a plane with a boat underneath and can take off and land on both land and water. It is designed for forest firefighting, maritime patrols, and search and rescue. It could also be used for oceanic environment observation, resource exploration and transport between islands.

A propeller-driven aircraft, the AG600 is 36.9 metres (121 feet) long with a 38.8-metre wingspan, similar to the size of a Boeing 737. It has a capacity of 50 passengers, and can fly at a maximum speed of 500km/h (310 miles per hour), with a longest duration of 12 hours.

If deployed in the southern island province of Hainan, the aircraft would be capable of reaching anywhere in the South China Sea within four hours. It could also serve as a cargo or passenger carrier between the Chinese-controlled islands in the region.

With its boat underside, the AG600 can “ski” on water. In 20 seconds of skiing it can draw 12 tonnes of water into its tank — enough to spray over 4,000 square metres in a firefighting mission.

The AG600 is bigger and has a greater take-off weight than Japan’s US-2, the world’s most advanced amphibious plane.

However, the AG600 can operate only when sea waves are no more than 2 metres high, compared with the US-2’s 3-metre wave resistance. This would limit the AG600’s use in the South China Sea, where large waves occasionally occur during seasonal monsoons or typhoons.

The AG600 conducted its maiden land-based flight from Zhuhai in December 2017, and its first water-based test flight over a reservoir in Jingmen in October 2018, reports said.

Sea-based tests will be more challenging than those conducted over land and lakes, given the wind and waves as well as the corrosive environment.

The developers have been building four prototypes. If tests go well, the amphibious aircraft is expected to be finalised and delivered by 2022, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Courtesy: OperaNews/ businessinsider.com