China's independently developed large amphibious aircraft, the AG600, recently completes its first water scooping and dropping exercise in Northeast China's Jilin Province Photo: Screenshot from China Media Group

China's independently developed large amphibious aircraft, the AG600, completed its first water scooping and dropping exercise in a real-world field environment recently at the Songhua Lake waters in Northeast China's Jilin Province, China Media Group (CMG) learned from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), the aircraft developer, on Wednesday.

The water scooping and dropping exercise in a field environment marked the first time the AG600 aircraft conducted such a task outside its water test flight base in Jingmen, Central China's Hubei Province. On the day of the exercise, the AG600 took off from Changbaishan Airport, flew approximately 190 kilometers to the Songhua Lake waters, and quickly entered operational status, according to CMG.

The AG600 aircraft features two typical mission modes: water scooping and dropping, and water loading and dropping.

After loading 12 tons of water at an airport, flying to the destination, and dropping it, the aircraft can perform nine consecutive water scooping and dropping operations, achieving a total water drop volume of 120 tons. The water coverage creates rainfall equivalent to heavy rain or higher, over an area exceeding 40,000 square meters, the report said.

Currently, all three batch-production AG600 aircraft have completed production test flights and are scheduled for delivery to users within the year. In the future, the AG600 will further expand its deployment range, forming a three-dimensional forest safety protection network in coordination with ground firefighting forces, and continuously enhancing forest fire prevention and suppression capabilities, CMG said.

Since its development was initiated in 2009, the AG600's development process has seen it successfully complete its maiden flight in 2017, the first take-off from a reservoir in 2018, and a maiden flight over the sea in 2020. In 2023, AG600 was capable of carrying out fire-fighting tasks, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Slightly larger than mainstream single-aisle airliners, the AG600 measures 38.9 meters in length, 11.7 meters in height and 38.8 meters in wingspan, according to AVIC data.

The AG600's development involved hundreds of supporting units and tens of thousands of components, showcasing China's comprehensive capabilities in collaborative design and manufacturing, supply chain management and process consistency control for large special-purpose aircraft, Xinhua reported.

This progress has laid down replicable management experience and technical standards for future domestic large special-purpose aircraft projects, according to Xinhua.

Global Times