Chinese State Company Unveils World's Largest Seaplane (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: China has completed production of the world's largest amphibious aircraft, state media has said, the latest effort in the country's program to wean itself off dependence on foreign aviation firms. The state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) unveiled the first of the new planes, dubbed the AG600, Saturday in the southern port city of Zhuhai, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The aircraft, which has a maximum range of 4,500 km (2,800 miles), is intended for fighting forest fires and performing marine rescues, it said. At around the size of a Boeing 737, it is far larger than any other plane built for marine take off and landing, Xinhua quoted AVIC's deputy general manager Geng Ruguang as saying. The AG600 could potentially extend the Asian giant's ability to conduct a variety of operations in the South China Sea, where it has built a series of artificial islands featuring air strips, among other infrastructure with the potential for either civilian or military use.

Comments

Re:Not as big as...

[Richard_at_work]

The Hercules H-4 "Spruce Goose" (Hughes never liked that nickname) is not amphibious, it was a pure seaplane, while this Chinese aircraft is amphibious and it is the largest of its type.

Thats why the summary starts with "China has completed production of the world's largest amphibious aircraft"...

Re:Not as big as...

[AmiMoJo]

And besides which, the H-4 was a one-off prototype that made one mile long flight at an altitude of just 20m. It's not clear if it would operate well higher up where there was no ground effect, or if it could carry its rated cargo capacity. And it hasn't flown since the 1940s, and isn't airworthy today, so it's stretching the definition of "aircraft in the world" a bit.

Don't get me wrong, it was a really interesting aircraft and a marvel of engineering at the time, but you have to hand it to the Chinese that they have something that actually works and is for sale. It's not that US engineering is inferior, it's that the will to build such an aircraft for a fairly limited market isn't there. It reminds me of the attitude the west had in the 50s and 60s.