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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-42471045
The world's largest amphibious aircraft, China's AG600, has made a successful one-hour maiden flight.
The plane, roughly the size of a Boeing 737 but with four turboprop engines, lifted off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong.
The plane can carry 50 people and can stay airborne for 12 hours.
It has firefighting and marine rescue duties but also military applications, which could be put to use in the disputed South China Sea region. The AG600, codenamed Kunlong, can reach the southernmost edge of China's territorial claims in the area.
State media Xinhua described the plane as "protector spirit of the sea, islands and reefs".
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World's Largest Amphibious Plane in Production Takes Flight in China
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Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being
that a belch is more satisfying.
-- Ingmar Bergman
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 25 2017, @05:40PM (5 children)
Looks like they copied the spruce goose.
(Score: 2) by terrab0t on Monday December 25 2017, @06:16PM
That makes sense. Hughes had a good design. The only thing it needed was enough thrust and it wasn’t like he was trying to make a brick fly. Engines that could have lifted the Spruce Goose are common today.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deadstick on Monday December 25 2017, @06:21PM (3 children)
Ummm, not hardly nohow. OK, it has a high wing on a boat hull, the go-to configuration for large seaplanes...other than that:
-It's less than 40% of the wingspan.
-It's less than 13% of the gross weight.
-It's less than 72% of the horsepower.
-It can operate on land.
-It works. The Goose never climbed out of ground effect.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 25 2017, @07:46PM (2 children)
Or, maybe balsa goose?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday December 25 2017, @10:01PM (1 child)
I still remember ordering parts from Aircraft Spruce and Fabric for a recovering project.
Turns out Sitka Spruce is an ideal weight to strength ratio for small aircraft and is still
used today for rebuild historic planes.
(I have no idea what wood the spruce goose was made out of.).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deadstick on Tuesday December 26 2017, @12:33AM
Mostly birch: it takes dampness better than spruce does. Maybe some balsa stuffing between layers, where honeycomb would be used today.