The AG600 is the third member of China’s “large aircraft family” following the large freighter Y-20 and large passenger aircraft C919, Xinhua said.
China-made amphibious aircraft AG600 (Photo: Defenseworld.net/Twitter)
China’s indigenously designed and built amphibious aircraft AG600, touted as the world’s largest, successfully carried out its first take-off and landing tests on Saturday.
The aircraft, developed and built by the state-owned aircraft firm Aviation Industry Corporation of China, took off and later landed on the water in Hubei province’s Jingmen, state-run China Daily reported.
The seaplane took off from the Zhanghe Reservoir at 8:51 am and stayed airborne for about 15 minutes, said the report which also accompanied the videos of the aircraft’s take off.
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The Chinese aircraft code-named Kunlong was piloted by four crew members.
Early this month, it completed its first water taxiing trials at a high speed of 145 kilometres.
The AG600 is the third member of China’s “large aircraft family” following the large freighter Y-20 and large passenger aircraft C919, Xinhua said.
Designed to be the world’s largest amphibious aircraft, AG600 is powered by four domestically-built turboprop engines and has a range of 12 hours.
It will be mainly used for maritime rescue, fighting forest fires and marine monitoring, according to an earlier report by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The aircraft has passed a series of tests since its maiden flight last December. It successfully finished eight taxiing tests on water at a speed of 80-kilometre per hour and 120-kilometre per hour.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory note on the development, saying the successful take-off of the AG600 “marked another significant achievement through independent innovation by China’s aviation industry”.
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