Recently, China's independent research and development of the world's largest amphibious aircraft AG600 formally from Zhuhai AVIC Tongfei Huanan assembly factory off the assembly line, marking the aircraft's main structure and installation of airborne systems officially completed, the following will be fully integrated into the ground At the stage, it fills the gap in the development of large-scale amphibious aircraft in China.
The AG600 is a standard amphibious aircraft. The lower body is a ship. The upper body is an airplane. Apart from being able to take off and land on the land like an ordinary airplane, it is given a water area 1,500 meters long, 200 meters wide, and 2.5 meters deep. It can all "talk and go." As the largest amphibious aircraft researched in the world today, the aircraft has a 37-meter long fuselage and a 38.8-meter wingspan, which is comparable to the Boeing 737. In terms of airframe structure, the AG600 adopts a single hull, single-wing cantilever and retractable landing gear layout for the first three points, and four turboprop engines are available.
Unlike most of the domestic small-scale amphibious aircraft, the AG600 is mainly used to meet the needs of forest fire fighting and water rescue. It is the first large-scale special-purpose civil aircraft developed in China. In respect of fire-fighting capabilities, the AG600 can drown 12 tons of water once in 20 seconds, and a single water injection fire-fighting area can reach 4,000 square meters. In terms of maritime rescue, the AG600 can implement surface rescue operations under complex weather conditions of 2m high waves, and the water emergency rescue can rescue 50 persons in distress.
What is even more worth mentioning is that the AG600 has a maximum cruising speed of 500 km/h and a maximum range of 4,500 km. This mileage can be directly flown from Hainan Sanya, the most northern part of Heilongjiang, to Hainan Sanya, and can also travel from Sanya to Zengmu, the southernmost tip of China. Due to the large number of South Island reefs, it is impossible to build an airport on each island, and AG600's powerful endurance capability can also play a significant role in the land-to-water docking, material resupply and distress rescue of the South China Sea islands.
The staff of the Civil Aviation Engineering Department of AVIC said that for an amphibious aircraft such as the AG600, it is necessary to satisfy both the tightness of water and the aerodynamic nature of the air, and its design and manufacturing are very difficult. Since AVIC officially announced the start of research and development in September 2009, the final assembly will be completed by July 2016. The public will be 6 years and 10 months long. During this period, 300 extra sessions will be held to confirm thousands of parts and components. The intensity of the craft review. Nationwide, tens of thousands of researchers from 20 provinces and cities, more than 150 enterprises and institutions, and more than ten colleges and universities participated in the development of the project. There are more than 70 suppliers alone.
As a domestically produced aircraft, AVIC Group stated that more than 90% of all components of AG600 are domestically produced. Among them, the AG600, a key component of public concern, is also a domestically-produced turboprop engine. Compared with the domestically produced “Three Major Machinesâ€, the other two C919 and Yun-20 have higher localization.
At present, the AG600 has already obtained 17 intentional orders, which is already a considerable number for special purpose aircraft like the AG600. In addition, some countries with a large number of islands have expressed interest in AG600 and are currently in negotiations.
