Domestically developed amphibious aircraft given approval for delivery

The AG600 amphibious aircraft completes a compliance test flight for combustible liquid emissions in Pucheng, Shaanxi province, in February. (YUE SHUHUA/FOR CHINA DAILY)

The AG600, China's domestically developed seaplane, received its type certificate on Sunday from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, clearing the way for its delivery.

At an issuance ceremony at Aviation Industry Corp of China's Beijing headquarters, Hu Zhenjiang, deputy head of the aviation administration, conferred the type certificate, which certifies the plane model's design, to Wei Yingbiao, general manager of AVIC, developer of the aircraft and the country's leading aircraft manufacturer.

This means that the AG600, the world's largest and heaviest amphibious aircraft, has completed a long list of stringent tests and gained permission to enter the market, AVIC said.

Cheng Zhihang, a senior engineer at AVIC General Huanan Aircraft Industry Co, said after the ceremony that the model's prototypes conducted as many as 2,167 test flights totaling 4,931 hours. The flight tests took place in many places in the country, including Guizhou, Sichuan and Hainan provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

His company is an AVIC subsidiary in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, and is responsible for the AG600 project.

"So far, we have received orders for six AG600s from two buyers. Deliveries are expected to begin in August," he said, noting that there are several ongoing talks with local governments and companies.

"The seaplane can help in many operations such as air-based rescue, firefighting and artificial weather modification," Cheng said.

The AG600 is China's second amphibious aircraft model after the SH-5, which was developed in the 1970s for military purposes and has long been retired from service.

It is one of three large-size aircraft to emerge from the nation's ambitious effort to become a top-tier player in the global aviation sector, joining the Y-20 strategic transport plane and the C919 narrow-body jetliner. Both the Y-20 and the C919 have entered active service.

Development of the AG600 was approved by the central government in June 2009 and began in September that year. Tens of thousands of researchers and engineers from 312 domestic institutes, enterprises and universities across the nation took part in the program. Construction of the first prototype began in March 2014 and was completed in July 2016.

The AG600 made its debut flight in December 2017 in Zhuhai, taking off from and landing at an airport. Ten months later, it carried out its first water-based takeoff and landing on Zhanghe Reservoir in Jingmen, Hubei province. In July 2020, the seaplane conducted its first sea-based test flight on the Yellow Sea.

Over the past several years, four prototypes were built to undertake various kinds of tests across the country to verify the flying boat's capabilities and compliance with airworthiness standards.

With a length of 38.9 meters and a wingspan of 38.8 meters, the AG600 is roughly the size of a Boeing 737. It will be the world's biggest operating amphibious aircraft, surpassing Japan's ShinMaywa US-2 and Russia's Beriev Be-200.

The plane has a maximum takeoff weight of 60 metric tons, an operational ceiling — the maximum altitude at which it can fly safely and efficiently — of 7.6 kilometers and a maximum operational range of 4,500 km.

The aircraft is designed for both ground- and water-based takeoffs and landings. It is capable of rescuing 50 people during a maritime search and rescue mission. In a typical firefighting operation, it can collect 12 tons of water from a lake or sea within 20 seconds and use it to douse fires over an area of about 4,000 square meters, designers said.