MAGA Tribalism
President Donald Trump’s proclamation of a “golden age” for America seems to be emerging from his vision of ultranationalism and global dominance.
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.
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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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