China's AG600 amphibious aircraft completes all prior certification flight tests

China's AG600 large amphibious aircraft on Friday completed all of its prior-certification flight test subjects, a key step toward achieving its airworthiness certification target, announced the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

The Chinese independently-developed AG600 aircraft on Friday accomplished the compliance flight test subject of combustible liquid discharge at a civil aircraft flight test center in Pucheng County in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the AVIC said.

Over the past two years, the AG600 aircraft conducted up to 2,014 flight movements totaling 3,560 flight hours for flight test missions prior to its airworthiness certification, said the developer.

The AG600 aircraft traveled to multiple sites across the country to carry out its flight tests in order to secure special meteorological conditions for some flight tests.

The AVIC said the flight tests were conducted in diversified scenarios, such as water surface, extreme cold, high temperature and humidity, crosswinds, and typical firefighting tasks to verify the aircraft's operational capabilities in various special environments.

China's AG600 large amphibious aircraft family is being developed as vital advanced aeronautical equipment to strengthen the country's emergency rescue and natural disaster prevention capabilities.

The AG600 aircraft family is tailored to carry out rescue missions such as firefighting and maritime search and rescue in all types of terrain across the country.

The AG600 series amphibious aircraft features a unique configuration consisting of an integrated aircraft-shaped upper body and a ship-bottom-shaped lower body.

AG600 series aircraft can be fitted with equipment and facilities to meet the diverse needs of users in fields such as marine environment monitoring, resource detection, and passenger and cargo transportation.

The AG600 tech demonstrator successfully completed its maiden flight in 2017, the first take-off from a reservoir in 2018, and the maiden flight over the sea in 2020.

Through prior certification flight tests, the development team verified the performance of the AG600's aircraft platform.

The flight test results showed that the aircraft's operation and stability characteristics meet the design requirements, its stall characteristics are better than the expected indicators, and all of its systems function reliably.

Meanwhile, the water dropping function and efficiency of the AG600 aircraft have been fully verified. It is capable of serving fire fighting missions in diverse scenarios such as plains, hills and plateaus.

The AG600 tech-demonstrator successfully completed its maiden flight in 2017, the first take-off from a reservoir in 2018, and the maiden flight over the sea in 2020.

The development of AG600 large amphibious aircraft enhances China's design and manufacturing capabilities for large-sized special-purpose civil aircraft, and also promotes the leapfrog progress of the country's aeronautical emergency rescue equipment system, said the AVIC.