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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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Logicians have but ill defined
As rational the human kind.
Logic, they say, belongs to man,
But let them prove it if they can.
-- Oliver Goldsmith
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday December 25 2017, @10:40PM
I bet the british wish they had a fleet of these when the Falklands war broke out.
Even if they needed air refueling, they could have put 40 full combat equipped SAS troops on any beach on the island.
As it was, the British had to bomb the only suitable airfield just to keep the Argentinians from using it.
One wonders if there isn't a military role for such craft that is poo-pooed simply because it seems there is an excess of big airfields around the world. Trouble is, it only takes a few parked cars and trucks to make airfields unusable. And every casual observer knows exactly where you have to land troops.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.