Reuters
Posted on 12/24/2017 7:49:30 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
China’s domestically developed AG600, the world’s largest amphibious aircraft, performed its maiden flight on Sunday from an airport on the shores of the South China Sea, the latest step in a military modernisation programme.
China has stepped up research on advanced military equipment as it adopts a more muscular approach to territorial disputes in places such as the disputed South China Sea, rattling nerves in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States.
State television showed live images of the AG600 lifting off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong, which sits on the South China Sea coast.
It returned about an hour later and taxied to its stand accompanied by martial music and greeted by crowds waving Chinese flags.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said the aircraft was the “protector spirit of the sea, islands and reefs”.
It had previously been expected to make its first flight earlier this year, but it is unclear why it was delayed after ground tests took place in April.
State-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China has spent almost eight years developing the aircraft, which is roughly the size of a Boeing Co 737 and is designed to carry out marine rescues and battle forest fires.
However, state media has also noted its potential use in the South China Sea where China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei all have overlapping claims.
The AG600’s chief designer, Huang Lingcai, was quoted in the official China Daily earlier this month as saying it can make round trips without refuelling from the southern island province of Hainan to James Shoal, claimed by China but which is located close to Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
Reuters
Spruce Goose
Looks like something from an old Japanese Godzilla movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hppQXKoAN44
Howard Hughes was a great American.
Spluce Goo
was longer, had wider wingspan and was higher. Why is the AG600 considered the biggest ?
It has a Russian aesthetic to it.
You'll have to ask Ching Chong Chang.
I thought that too.
To be fair, the Spruce Goose was not ever able to demonstrate that it could fly out of ground effect; therefore it was not really an airplane. It was a Ground Effect Vehicle or as the Russians call it an ‘Ekranoplan’.
No way is that plane anywhere CLOSE to being as big as the Spruce Goose was ... but it probably IS the largest amphibious plane in use today ...
Because it can actually fly out of ground effect.
Specifications (JRM-3 Martin Mars) 1941-47
Data from Jane’s Fighting Aircraft of World War II
General characteristics
Crew: four (with accommodations for a second relief crew)
Capacity: JRM Mars - 133 troops, or 84 litter patients and 25 attendants or 32,000 lb (15,000 kg) payload, including up to seven Willys MB jeeps
Water/foam load: Mars waterbomber - 60,000 lb (27,000 kg)
Length: 117 ft 3 in (35.74 m)
Wingspan: 200 ft 0 in (60.96 m)
Width: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) Hull beam
Height: 38 ft 5 in (11.71 m) afloat, 48 ft (15 m) beached
Hull draught: 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Wing area: 3,686 sq ft (342.4 m2)
Empty weight: 75,573 lb (34,279 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 165,000 lb (74,843 kg)
"In May 2015, the Hawaii Mars received a small contract to be used briefly for training Chinese pilots. This was done using the Martin Mars to evaluate against civil certification regulations by The International Test Pilot School, on how to handle such a large amphibious aircraft. These pilots will be involved with the Chinese state owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China as they get ready to launch their forthcoming AVIC TA-600 airplane"
AVIC AG600 (TA-600)
General characteristics
Capacity: 50 passengers
Length: 36.9 m (121 ft 1 in)
Wingspan: 38.8 m (127 ft 4 in)
Height: 12.1 m (39 ft 8 in)
Max takeoff weight: 53,500 kg (117,947 lb)
Powerplant: 4 × WJ-6 turboprops, 3,805 kW (5,103 hp) each
Propellers: 6-bladed constant speed propellers
Performance
Maximum speed: 570 km/h (354 mph; 308 kn)
Range: 5,500 km (3,418 mi; 2,970 nmi)
Service ceiling: 10,500 m (34,400 ft)
Interesting
Looks like a mixture of 1959 Beriyev-12, Antonov-12 and a tail section from newer Antonovs.
Poor Ukraine must have been sold out the rest of her Soviet airspace legacy to the Chinese.
You really know how to insult the ChiComs doncha? lol
Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose could fly, Glyndwr University flight sim shows
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-26025939
Simulations are not reality and the plane itself never demonstrably flew outside of ground effect. The one flight it ever had was still in ground effect and no attempt was made to climb out of it.
I can show you a simulation that demonstrates that Hillary is President right now. This does not match demonstrated reality.
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