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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China's devious move under cover of virus
As outbreaks debilitate the US navy, there are fears China may be using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for asserting control over the South China Sea.
A Vietnamese fishing boat has been rammed and sunk. Military aircraft have landed at its artificial-island fortresses. And large-scale naval exercises has let everyone know China's navy is still pushing the boundaries, hard.
Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has retreated from the contested waterway in an unscheduled return to Guam – with hundreds of cases of COVID-19 on board.
China's Peoples Liberation Army knows this presents an opportunity.
"The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly lowered the US Navy's warship deployment capability in the Asia-Pacific region," an article on its official website declares.
The website insists not a single one of its soldiers, sailors or pilots had contracted COVID-19. Instead, the crisis had served to strengthen the combat readiness and resolve of the Chinese military.
That has international affairs analysts worried that even a short-term withdrawal of US and international from the East and South China Seas could give Beijing the opportunity it has been waiting for.
"I think China is exploiting the US Navy's coronavirus challenges to improve its position in the South China Sea by giving the appearance it can and will operate there at will while the US is hamstrung," former Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Centre director Carl Schuster told CNN.
Previously:
(2020-01-09) China Initiates Conflict with Indonesia in the South China Sea
(2019-12-21) Malaysian Top Envoy: China's 'Nine-Dash Line' Claim 'Ridiculous'
(2019-11-22) US Warships Sail in Disputed South China Sea Amid Tensions
(2019-05-14) China Builds New Type 002 Mega Carrier as the Age of Sea Power Wanes
(2018-05-13) China Begins Sea Trials for its First Domestically Developed Aircraft Carrier
(2017-12-24) World's Largest Amphibious Plane in Production Takes Flight in China
(2017-05-25) US Warship Challenges China's Claims in South China Sea
(2017-04-26) China Launches Aircraft Carrier
(2017-03-14) Japan to Send its Biggest Warship to the South China Sea
(2017-01-13) Chinese State Media Boasts About its New Electronic Reconnaissance Ship
(2016-07-14) China's South China Sea Claims Rejected By "Binding" but Unenforceable Tribunal Ruling
(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.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 25 2017, @07:38PM (7 children)
Only in a planned economy could it make sense to build a flying boat -- 50 years after the British scrapped their last big one, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_Princess [wikipedia.org]
A total of three were built and the last one was scrapped in 1967 -- 50 years ago. Based on comments seen in a few places, the era of the flying boat ended after WWII when there were many more good runways all over the world.
I suppose it's possible that the South China Sea is still short on runways?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 25 2017, @07:51PM (5 children)
Well, there are still a few advantages to a flying boat. Search and rescue, for instance. Helicopters may not have the range, and other aircraft are unable to land. If an aircraft does locate the missing persons in the water, then everyone has to wait for a slow-assed ship to arrive. The flying boat can just land, and offer immediate assistance. Or, if the boat wasn't the one to sight the missing persons first, it can fly to that spot pretty quickly and land. Or, fly there and water, I guess.
Being able to use the biggest landing strip in the world can't be a "bad thing".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 25 2017, @09:55PM (1 child)
Except that you can't because sea state is usually too high. We needn't go into the corrosion problems.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday December 25 2017, @10:07PM
Yes, you needn't go into corrosion problems. Solved problem long ago.
http://www.aluminum.org/sites/default/files/Aluminum_at_Sea.pdf [aluminum.org]
What do you think they make aircraft floats out of?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(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.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by deadstick on Monday December 25 2017, @10:42PM (1 child)
Not all that big. A seaplane can be landed on the open sea, but it's strictly an emergency procedure, even with the largest ones. For normal operation you need protected water.
Historical example: The survivors of the USS Indianapolis sinking were spotted by a landplane, which dropped a few supplies and directed a PBY seaplane to the site. It landed, but had no chance of taking off, instead acting as a big life raft until a surface ship could get there. The airplane was then sunk by gunfire.
There were exceptions: WW2 battleships were equipped with small seaplanes that could be catapulted off the stern for reconnaissance. On their return, the ship would make a hard, high-speed turn and sweep out a patch of relatively calm water for them to land on. Didn't see much use in wartime, having been supplanted by carrier-based aircraft.
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday December 26 2017, @03:20AM
I think the idea is to create more artificial harbors in the South China Sea.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 25 2017, @10:54PM
When I lived in South Florida in the late 1970s, Chalk's Airlines [wikipedia.org] used Biscayne Bay[1] for takeoffs/landings.
ISTM that that avoided the cost of landing fees at MIA|Lauderdale|whatever.
(Mostly, they traveled to the Bahamas; during Prohibition, they were rum runners.)
That operation got its license yanked in 2007.
At the time, it was the oldest still-operating airline (since 1917).
[1] Not really a bay; a strait between the offshore islands and the mainland.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 26 2017, @01:50AM
This kind of reminds me of old Soviet-style "Communism Marches On!"-style publicity projects.
Except for small aircraft for puddle-jumping to resort islands or hunting lodges, amphibian aircraft are incredibly cost-ineffective dinosaurs.
The might as well be touting the world's biggest steam locomotive or propeller fighter plane.