Decks cleared for delivery of China's indigenous AG600 seaplane

The AG600, China's domestically developed seaplane, received its production certificate on Wednesday from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), clearing the way for its delivery.

At an issuance ceremony in Guangdong province's Zhuhai, home to the aircraft's manufacturing complex, Li Shuangchen, head of the CAAC Central and Southern Regional Administration, conferred the certificate to representatives from the AG600 project team, according to a news release from Aviation Industry Corp of China, developer of the aircraft and the country's leading aircraft manufacturer.

This means that the AG600, the world's largest and heaviest amphibious aircraft, can enter mass production and then foray into the market.

After the issuance, China Aviation Industry General Aircraft, an AVIC subsidiary in charge of the AG600 project, signed cooperation agreements with several parties such as the Jilin provincial department of emergency management, the city government of Jinhua in Zhejiang province, and the Macao General Aviation and Flying Association, aiming to use its AG600s to provide service to them.

The AG600 is China's second amphibious aircraft model after the SH-5, which was developed in the 1970s for military purposes and has long been retired from service.

It is the last in the three large-size aircraft models that China has relentlessly striven to design and build on its own. Its two predecessors — the Y-20 military transport plane and the C919 narrow-body jetliner — have been in active service for years.

Development of the AG600 was approved by the central government in June 2009 and began in September that year. Tens of thousands of researchers and engineers from 312 institutes, enterprises and universities across the nation took part in the program.

Construction of the first prototype began in March 2014 and was completed in July 2016.

The AG600 made its debut flight in December 2017 in Zhuhai,?Guangdong, taking off from and landing at an airport. Ten months later, it carried out its first water-based takeoff and landing on Zhanghe Reservoir in Jingmen, Hubei province. In July 2020, the model conducted its first sea-based test flight on the Yellow Sea.

Over the past several years, four prototypes were built to undertake various kinds of tests across the country to verify the flying boat's capabilities and compliance with airworthiness standards.

With a length of 38.9 meters and a wingspan of 38.8 meters, the AG600 is roughly the size of a Boeing 737, making it the world's biggest operating amphibious aircraft.