China is the country of megaconstructions. Although Saudi Arabia and Arab Emirates are trying to monopolize all eyes with impossible skyscrapers and the controversial city The Line, talking about really huge constructions is talking about China. From indescribable tunnels to pharaonic bridges, the Asian giant surprises us from time to time with a project that can only be described with one word: colossal.
Within that category there are also vehicles, and China can already presume to have the largest amphibious aircraft in the world.
AG600. That is the official name of an airplane that, during its 16 years of development, we met as ‘Kunlong’, or “water dragon”. It is the work of the Chinese air industry corporation (or Avic), a Chinese consortium that is dedicated to the manufacture of airplanes, and is really huge:
- You can house 50 passengers.
- You can take off with a total weight of more than 53 tons.
- It has a range of 4,500 kilometers and its four turboheric engines can sustain a speed of 570 km/h.
All this, measuring 36.9 meters long and with a wingspan of 38.8 meters. It is similar to a Boeing 737, which is said soon.
Multifunction. The AG600 design phase began at the end of the first decade of the 2000s and was an Avic task. In 2014, with the design ready, they began to manufacture the first unit. The idea was to perform the test flight in 2015, but the plans were delayed and it was in December 2017 when this Mole made its inaugural flight.
During these years in the testing phase, and as we read in Motorpasion, the AG600 has performed maneuvers in all types of weather scenarios and has accumulated 3,560 flight hours to earn certification. This hard training responds to the function that the aircraft will have: strategic and rescue missions in conditions that can be adverse.
The ship is designed to perform maritime search and rescue missions, maritime patrol and is also able to support forest fire extinction. You can collect up to 12 tons of water in just 20 seconds and download it at intervals of 12 to 20 seconds. In one of the tests you could see how water poured about 230 km/ha altitudes between 30 and 50 meters.
Strategic importance. As we say, the AG600 has already been certified and can start surrendering after a simple path. Only the nose has been working for three months and in 2020 we already commented that the deliveries were scheduled for 2022 (so you can see the delay that the project carried), and something interesting is that this plane can be key in China’s new commercial dream: the new silk route.
With that capacity to travel for 4,500 kilometers without the need to reproduce, the AG600 is insurance for the maritime route closest to the Asian giant. In addition to this, it is an achievement for a country that is looking for a way to reduce the dependence on western airplanes and technology, something that is applying both to its commercial airplanes and its aircraft and combat vehicles.
Single. Once the serial production of the final model begins, we can say that the Ag600 is the largest amphibious aircraft in the world, but although its size is imposing, it has distant cousins that exceeded it. And as much. On the one hand, the Goose spruce with a wingspan of 97.54 meters, a madness that was canceled after a single flight of 1.5 kilometers just 21 meters high.
On the other, the Martin Mars, a transport aircraft of the Second World War that was reconvisited in Hidroavion, but which was also removed years ago, having a wingspan of 61 meters.
Images | Avic, Alert5
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