China’s AG600 is expected to be ready for delivery to customers by 2022.
China’s indigenously designed and built Jiaolong (Water Dragon) AG600 seaplane — believed to be the world’s largest amphibious aircraft — will be ready for delivery to customers by 2022, Xinhua news agency reported on May 13 citing the plane’s manufacturer.
“We are endeavoring to get the airworthiness certification from the civil aviation authorities by 2021 and deliver it [the aircraft] to the customers by 2022,” Xinhua quoted Huang Lingcai, the AG600’s chief designer at Chinese state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), as saying.
The AG600 took to the skies for the first time in December 2017. The aircraft took off from a runway at Jinwan airport in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China. The flight lasted for about an hour. Earlier that month, the seaplane had passed the official technical quality assessment, one of the last major hurdles to overcome before its scheduled maiden flight.
Huang noted that the AG600 will be making more flights in 2018, including its first takeoff in water.
The AG600 is about the same size as a Boeing 737 and measures 37 meters in length and has a wingspan of 38.8 meters. Powered by four turboprop WJ-6 engines, the aircraft’s maximum take-off weight is 53.5 tons, its maximum cruising speed 500 kilometers per hour.
