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The AVIC AG600 Kunlong (Chinese: 鲲龙, "Kun dragon", after the giant fish of Chinese mythology that turns into the bird Peng) is a large four-engined amphibious flying boat designed by the Special Vehicle Research Institute of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and built by its subsidiary CAIGA (China Aviation Industry General Aircraft) at Zhuhai, in Guangdong province. Intended mainly for aerial firefighting and search and rescue at sea, it is claimed by its manufacturer to be the largest amphibious aircraft in production in the world. It first flew on 24 December 2017, received its type certificate in April 2025 and entered service with the Chinese emergency services at the end of the same year.
The programme was launched in 2009 as one of China's three "large aircraft" projects approved by the State Council, alongside the Xi'an Y-20 military transport and the Comac C919 airliner. Known successively as the Dragon 600 (Jiaolong 600) and the TA-600 before receiving its present designation, it was to replace the Harbin SH-5, the only previous Chinese flying boat, of which only a handful had been built in the 1970s and 1980s. The chief designer was Huang Lingcai.
After five years of design work, CAIGA started building the first aircraft in August 2014, aiming at the time for a first flight in 2015. The nose section was completed in March 2015, but assembly took longer than planned and the prototype was only rolled out at Zhuhai on 23 July 2016. By then AVIC had collected 17 orders and options, all from Chinese government agencies, including the China Coast Guard, and island nations such as New Zealand and Malaysia had shown some interest. The aircraft was presented to the public at Airshow China in November 2016.
The AG600 made its maiden flight on 24 December 2017 from Zhuhai Jinwan Airport, a flight of about one hour. After a transfer to Jingmen, in Hubei province, the prototype began low-speed taxiing on the Zhanghe reservoir on 30 August 2018, then made its first take-off and landing on water on 20 October 2018. On 26 July 2020 it completed its first flight from the sea, taking off from the waters off Qingdao, in Shandong province.
The programme then gave priority to forest firefighting. A new "full configuration" firefighting version, the AG600M, flew for the first time from Zhuhai on 31 May 2022, a flight of some twenty minutes. In September 2022 it completed its first tests of scooping and dropping 12 tonnes of water at Jingmen, and in 2023 the aircraft was declared able to carry out firefighting missions. Testing went on with cold-weather trials (early 2024), water rescue verification (May 2024) and hot and humid weather trials, and the certification flights were completed on 28 February 2025.
The AG600 received its type certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in Beijing on 20 April 2025, after more than fifteen years of development involving some 290 organisations and 16 universities. It is the first large special-purpose civil aircraft developed in China in accordance with civil airworthiness regulations. The first series-production aircraft (AG600-1101) made its production test flight at Zhuhai on 18 May 2025 and the CAAC issued the production certificate on 11 June 2025, marking the start of series production by AVIC General Huanan Aircraft Industry at Zhuhai. The second production aircraft (AG600-1102) flew in August 2025 and the third in October 2025; the first three aircraft were delivered by the end of 2025, and the fourth rolled off the assembly line early in 2026.
The AG600 is a single-hull flying boat with a cantilever high wing, a T-tail and stabilising floats under the outer wings. It is powered by four WJ-6 turboprops, the Chinese derivative of the Ivchenko AI-20 that powers the Antonov An-12 and the Il-18, driving six-bladed propellers, and it has a retractable tricycle landing gear that allows it to operate from ordinary runways.
The hull was designed to cope with high waves and long sea flights. The aircraft can operate from a stretch of water 1,500 m long, 200 m wide and 2.5 m deep, and should be able to take off and land in sea state 3, with waves of 2 m. In the firefighting role it scoops 12 tonnes of water in about 20 seconds while skimming the surface, then drops it at low speed (around 230 km/h) from a height of 30 to 50 m, covering more than 4,000 m² in a single pass. In the search and rescue role it can pick up to 50 people from the sea. With a range of 4,500 km and an endurance of up to 12 hours, it could reach the most remote islands of the South China Sea: from Sanya, on Hainan, it would fly to James Shoal, the southern limit of Chinese claims, in about four hours, which has led observers to point out its potential strategic value in a region subject to territorial disputes.
With a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes for the prototype and 60 tonnes for the AG600M, it is heavier than the Beriev Be-200 and the ShinMaywa US-2, its closest competitors, and carries twice as much water as the Canadair CL-415; only the Beriev A-40, which never went beyond the prototype stage, was heavier.
Even before certification, the AG600 took part in June 2025 in the national exercise "Emergency Mission 2025", fighting a simulated major forest fire in the Greater Khingan range alongside helicopters and drones. In October 2025 it carried out its first scooping and dropping drill in natural conditions on Songhua Lake, in Jilin province, and it gave a water-dropping demonstration at the China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin.
In spring 2026, two AG600s were stationed together in southern China for the forest fire season. From 15 May to 30 September 2026 an AG600 was deployed at Jiagedaqi, in the Greater Khingan forests of northern Heilongjiang: during these four months it flew 35 patrol and firefighting sorties totalling 100 flight hours and dropped some 390 tonnes of water, and took part in the large-scale exercise "Safe Northern Frontier 2026". The type is now to be stationed there on a regular basis.
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