- China's AG600 "Kunlong" aircraft receives production certification.
- Designed for firefighting & rescue, carrying up to 12 tonnes of water.
- Marks a breakthrough in China's civil aviation for special-purpose aircraft.
China has officially commenced mass production of its AG600 "Kunlong" amphibious aircraft, which was developed locally. The Civil Aviation Administration of China provided production certification on Wednesday.
According to an expert from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the company's developer and China's largest manufacturer of aircraft, the production Certificate confirms that the applicant's quality system complies with the regulations on airworthiness and the quality system reasonably guarantees that aircraft will be produced following the design, and that the production will be consistent.
According to AVIC data, compared to widely used single-aisle airliners, the AG600 is only slightly bigger, measuring 38.9 meters in length, 11.7 meters in height, and 38.8 meters wide. The AG600 has a maximum takeoff weight of 60 tonnes and has a maximum practical range of 4,500 kilometers. And of course, it can bring up to 12 tonnes of water to fight fires.
"The AG600 is a plane that can swim and a ship that can fly," Huang Lingcai, chief designer of the AG600 series, told Xinhua in a previous interview.
The AG600 has a unique configuration, with the upper body in the shape of an integrated aircraft and the lower body in the shape of a ship. Each side of the aircraft's large wings has a float over 4m long to minimize the risk of the aircraft rolling over when taxing on the water surface to ensure safety.
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The construction of AG600 was an accomplishment of hundreds of supporting units and tens of thousands of components. It demonstrated that China can collaboratively design and manufacture, manage the supply chain, and control the process consistency of large special-purpose aircraft. These achievements have established replicable management experience and technical standards for future domestic development of large special-purpose aircraft.
An AVIC expert observed that the successful development of the AG600 has established China's core technology system for large amphibious aircraft, with the development model of "small core, large collaboration", and a complete set of modeling in terms of the aspects of design, production, system integration, flight testing and support services.
This achievement makes China capable of independently developing large amphibious aircraft and marks a historic breakthrough in the country's civil aviation industry for large special-purpose aircraft.
AVIC experts stated that in the future, the focus will be on China's emergency rescue and natural disaster prevention area, continuing to develop the AG600 serially, establishing China's aviation emergency rescue service network, and building a complete set of rescue equipment system with the AG600 at its core.