AIRCRAFT - AG600M Kunlong test progress / AG600 amphibious aircraft expected to enter market in 2025

An AG600M firefighting aircraft drops water during a gathering and dropping water test in Jingmen, central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun)

Crew members of an AG600M firefighting aircraft disembark from the plane after a gathering and dropping water test in Jingmen, central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 27, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun)

The arrival of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) AG600M Kunlong amphibious aircraft prototype at the National Civil Aircraft Test Flight Base in Pucheng in Shaanxi province in 2023 marks the next step of the flight test programme of this amphibious aircraft project.

Few people will realise that already nine aircraft were built by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA) at Zhuhai airport. The first batch however is already somewhere around the scrap heap as the design had to be refined after the first flight of AG600 B-002A on 24 December 2017.

Currently four AG600Ms, registrations B-0DCC, B-0HEH , B-0AWT, and B-0FAS, are in the flight test programme. To find more details on these aircraft look at the Scramble Soviet database and search for type AG600.

A major part of the tests has taken place at Zhanghe airport, from where many watertests were performed at the Zhanghe reservoir. The aircraft is designed for aerial firefighting duties and is able to drop 12.000 litres of water, equivalent to the Beriev Be-200.

Because it is an amphibious aircraft, other roles are conceivable, but these have not yet been officially provided.

The Civil Aircraft Flight Test Base opened its facilities last year on the new Pucheng airfield that is about 35 km away from the famous military aircraft test base CFTE at Xi’an Yanliang.

Credit photo: National Civil Aircraft Test Flight

 

First amphibious flight for AG600M

The prototype of the Chinese AVIC AG600M ‘Kunlong’ firefighting aircraft, registered as B-ODCC made its first flight from water on 29 August 2022.

The amphibious aircraft taxied into the water from the airport of Zhanghe in Jingmen, Hubei Province, and took off from the water surface. After a successful eighteen minutes testflight, during which several systems and procedures were tested, the machine landed again in the Zhanghe Reservoir. For the occasion B-ODCC had received a civilian firefighting livery.

The prototype AG600M made its first flight from land already on 31 May 2022 from Zuhai. The ‘M’ version is the latest, improved version of the earlier AG600. In its new configuration the firefighting aircraft AG600M has an increased (60 tons versus the 53 tons of the original AG600) Maximum Take-off Weight, and a capacity for 12 metric tons of water, in addition to a longer range.

AVIC also installed a pressure cabin, fly-by-wire flight controls, integrated avionics, and other firefighting-related systems. The firm said that the first AG600M would be able to serve in firefighting missions in 2023.

While AVIC and Chinese media have emphasized the AG600M's emergency-response role, its size and amphibious capability have drawn attention to its potential military uses, such as combat search-and-rescue and carrying troops and supplies to far-flung bases.

China’s all too clear ambitions in the Pacific have even prompted the US to consider acquiring their own long range amphibian aircraft. An old design came of the shelf: US Air Force Special Operations Command has already started a rapid prototyping effort to develop ‘a removable amphibious float modification’ for its workhorse MC-130J.

This spring, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency issued a notice for its ‘Liberty Lifter’ program, which aims to ‘design, build, and flight test an affordable, innovative, and disruptive seaplane’ that can sustain ground-effect flight at altitudes less than 100 feet above the water and fly at altitudes up to 10,000 feet above sea level.

Sources: AVIC, Business Insider
Photos: AVIC