An aerial refueling version would be nice.On August 29th, the AG600M firefighting variant successfully conducted its maiden flight from water.
Chinese Aviation Industry
- Thread starter FriedRiceNSpice
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Some video footage to go with it:On August 29th, the AG600M firefighting variant successfully conducted its maiden flight from water.
Any idea the plan for future engines?The second prototype of the AG600 firefighting variant has successfully conducted its maiden flight on September 10. The flight lasted 22 minutes.
The hope for the entire chinese turboprop industry (MA700, Y-9 etc) is the AEP500
I've heard conflicting claims some saying it'll be produced soon and some saying by 2028
AEP500 is going to be a commerical engine. Civil certification takes time. It took A400M's engine 6 years to go from first bench run to civil certification. Yes Europrop messed up with FADEC, but China is less experienced than Europe. 6 years from bench run to certification should be considered smooth for AEP500.
AEP500 just had it's first prototype built early this year. I have yet to see any news on a bench run. Maybe it already happened, maybe not. But any expectation of imminent serial production is nonsense. 2028 is more like it.
Anyone knows if Chinese fire fighters can still use military-only equipments now they're no longer part of the PAP? Do they have to use civil certified helicopters, for example? AG600 will not get civil certification with WJ6.
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The transition you're referring to is called a "step," and is a feature on all flying boats and floatplanes. It enables the aft portion of the hull/pontoons to break free of the water for takeoffs and high-speed taxiing.A relatively rare angle on the AG600. That's a fairly abrupt (ventral) transition from just forward of the landing gears.
Correction: WJ6 actually received civil certification in the 1990s. WJ6, WJ9, WZ8 and WZ16 are all civil certified in China.