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 ...
It looks like something designed by a committee of communist political appointees.
Like Obamacare.
Also Hughes was a generous American with his money. I read that he gave over half his fortune to charity, over a billion? He also left his 20+ relatives the other half of his fortune to divide up. A generous man.
Simulations give you far more accurate information than flights with actual aircraft.
If you get the parameters correct, sure. The article itself admits that the simulation “needs some refining.” It also mentions that you have to keep the wings level at all times in the simulator as it is now or the plane death spirals in.
The only difference between test and production is: in test there is no difference.
Most Chinese aircraft have Russian built, or Chinese built Russian licensed engine designs as their powerplants.
Its the Russian/Chinese inability to understand the concept of “safety margin” in their engineering which would keep me away.
CC
Spruce Goose a thing of beauty...AG600 a bug-like thing...
Biggest currently in service.
Its the blue stripes.
what a freaking load..!!
this is another Chinese knockoff of a Japanese aircraft.
Amphibious plane. That means it’s both left-handed and right-handed, yes?
This thing is an accident waiting to happen.
SPRUCE-GOOSE-GAI-PAN
It flew 70 feet high... that indeed exceeded ground effect.
Wing chord at root of Spruce Goose was 51 feet. It rose to 70 feet. That is out of grounds effect.
Spruce Goose on steroids?
Im pretty sure it means that it can adjust the temperature of the tub faucet with its toes.
Not completely. Rule of thumb for that class of aircraft at the time was that you didn’t exit ground effect completely until you climbed to an altitude of at least one half your wingspan above the surface.
The Spruce Goose wingspan was basically 320 feet. It only ever rose to an altitude of 70 feet. It did not actually exit ground effect.
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