Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the country's state-owned aerospace and defense manufacturer, has completed final assembly of the AG600, an amphibious aircraft intended for use in firefighting and marine rescue missions. The AG600 can also be modified according to the requirements of the customer to carry out maritime surveillance, resource detection and passenger and cargo transport.

Seven years in the making, the AG600 is expected to serve primarily Chinese domestic demand. Currently, 17 orders have been placed for the seaplane.

The AG600 is similar in size to a Boeing 737. Image credit: Aviation Industry Corporation of China. The AG600 is constructed with a single hull, cantilever monoplane layout and utilizes a retractable, tricycle-type landing gear and four domestically manufactured WJ-6 turboprop engines. The aircraft is 37 meters long, 12.1 meters high and has a wingspan of 38.8 meters—similar in size to a Boeing 737. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 53.5 tons, a top cruising speed of 500 km per hour and boasts a range of 4,500 km, or approximately 12 hours of flying time.

As an amphibious aircraft, the AG600 can take off and land on water, enabling multiple round trips between water sources and fire spots. The aircraft can draw 12 tons of water in just 20 seconds to cover a fire area of more than 4,000 square meters at once.

In addition to water searches at low altitude, the AG600 can carry out emergency operations under difficult weather conditions, including parking on waves of up to two meters high during a water rescue, with the capacity to airlift more than 50 people during each trip. The aircraft's speed surpasses those of surface ships, such as rescue and salvage vessels, by more than tenfold.

Completion of the AG600 is another milestone for China’s large-aircraft sector following the delivery earlier in 2016 of the 200-ton-class, multi-purpose transport Y-20 aircraft and, in 2015, of the C919 large passenger aircraft.