Aviation China's Amphibious Aircraft Enters Series Production

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China is diligently working on establishing its own aviation industry. Now, the amphibious "AG600 Kunlong" becomes the third large aircraft to enter series production— reportedly the largest amphibious aircraft in the world, according to a news agency.

Henrik Bork, a longtime China correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter Rundschau, is Managing Director at Asia Waypoint, a consulting agency specializing in China with headquarters in Beijing. 

In mid-June, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) received the production license for the water bomber AG600 Kunlong from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), reports the official news agency Xinhua.

This "largest amphibious aircraft on Earth," as introduced by Xinhua, is an interesting hybrid by design:

• Airplane on top, boat hull on the bottom.

• It can take off and land both on land and on water.

• With a length of 127 feet, a wingspan of 127 feet, and a height of 38 feet, the propeller-driven seaplane is slightly larger than a Boeing 737.

• Each wing is equipped with a more than 13 feet long float, which prevents capsizing on the water.

The AG600 is an aircraft that can swim and a ship that can fly.

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With this hybrid functionality, it can be used for fighting forest fires, as it can land on lakes or the sea, take in 22 US tons  of water, then take off again and assist in extinguishing fires.

Other applications for the AG600 are described by Wang Yanan, the editor-in-chief of the Chinese aviation magazine Hangkong Zhishi, in an interview with the Global Times. The new aircraft has "great commercial potential" for managing forest areas from the air and for rescue operations of all kinds, Wang said.

In China, there is definitely a market for the aircraft. Six orders have already been received, according to its manufacturer. However, the export of the AG600 is also explicitly targeted, as Zhao Lei, a senior AVIC manager, recently stated to Chinese reporters at the Paris Airshow.

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Hope for Export

Indeed, China's aviation industry has an attractive new product on offer, as other water bomber aircraft with floats from other countries, such as the Canadian "Canadair CL-215," have already become somewhat outdated—and, like in this specific case, they can usually only take off and land on water, not also at an airport.

China's hopes for future exports are therefore likely not unrealistic, especially as forest fires are becoming more frequent and the AG600 is larger than the Japanese "US-2." American manufacturers do not offer anything comparable.

This also means that China's Air Force can now build a capability that its self-declared rival, the U.S. Air Force, does not possess. With the AG600, troops, supplies, and weapons can be transported to remote islands much more easily and quickly, for example, to support military outposts in the South China Sea.

Focus Also on Civil Aviation

However, China's ambitions with the AG600 are focused just as much on building its civil as well as military aviation industry. Just like the other two large aircraft now being manufactured in China—the C919 airliner and the Y-20 transport aircraft—the AG600 is also about the strategic development of supply chains and expertise.

Hundreds of Chinese suppliers are involved in the production of tens of thousands of components for the AG600. The now commencing series production underscores "China's ability to coordinate the design and manufacturing of large specialized aircraft and manage their complex supply chains," writes Xinhua.

Domestic Products are Replacing One Import After Another

With the C919, a number of high-tech components still have to be imported from abroad. China's media remain silent on whether this is also the case with the AG600. However, this does not deter the central planners in Beijing at all. One import after another is simply replaced with domestically manufactured products.

Following the recent tightening of high-tech export boycotts by the US government, items such as high-performance jet engines can no longer be delivered to China. For this reason, the expansion of the domestic Chinese aviation industry has become even more urgent for Beijing. From this perspective, the AG600 represents another milestone for China.