At 8:10 on December 9, 2022, the first flight crew consisting of captain Zhao Sheng, co-pilot Tian Yafei, air mechanic Yu Lei and on-board observer Jiao Lianyue drove the "Kunlong" AG600M aircraft from Zhuhai Jinwan Airport. It took off after taxiing and flew in the air for 13 minutes. After completing a series of scheduled flight test subjects, it landed smoothly at 8:23.
Closing!
The third AG600M made its maiden flight successfully!
The large-scale firefighting/water rescue amphibious aircraft "Kunlong" AG600M (1006 units) independently developed by China Aviation Industry successfully made its first flight in Zhuhai, Guangdong.
This is the third AG600M aircraft to complete its first flight test since 2022, marking the perfect conclusion of the "first flight of three aircraft" task in the "four three" annual goals of the AG600 project.
Carry forward the "Kunlong spirit"
It is reported that a total of 4 new-configuration fire extinguishers have been developed and put into production, and the AG600M (1006) for this flight test is the third of this type of aircraft.
The first aircraft has achieved its first land flight on May 31, 2022, and its first water flight on August 29, 2022.
The second aircraft will achieve its maiden flight on land on September 10, 2022.
Since the third aircraft was delivered to the flight test station, it has successively completed ground commissioning, engine testing, and low, medium and high-speed taxiing. It completed its first flight test on December 9, 2022. Up to now, three aircraft have carried out flight verification test tasks at the same time. .
The whole line of AG600 research and development is based on the work style of being the best, daring to fight and winning, focusing on major nodes and key tasks, launching the "Kunlong" brand, realizing the grand blueprint step by step, and striving to write the era of "serving the country with aviation and strengthening the country through aviation" answer sheet.
The research and development team overcame the multiple adverse effects of high temperature and heat, the impact of the epidemic, and severe typhoon weather, and made overall planning and fine management, identified risk points in advance, scientifically scheduled production, and steadily advanced various tasks.
With the perseverance of seizing the day and night and persevering, we have successfully held the major nodes, and practiced the solemn promise of "not letting the train be late at home" and the "Kun" of "high ambition, hard work and dedication, independent innovation, and chasing dreams". Dragon Spirit".
On November 8, 2022, the brand new "Kunlong" AG600M aircraft optimized based on the technical demonstration aircraft made a stunning debut at the opening ceremony of the 14th China (Zhuhai) Air Show, showing the public the function of 12 tons of water throwing and pumping.
Subsequently, the Aviation Industry Group announced to the public that the AG600M aircraft will be put into actual combat use after June 2023.
From 2012 to 2022, the AG600M Zhuhai Air Show held a full-state 12-ton water pump. During this period, the technology verification machine was born, and completed three first flights, the first flight of a new-configuration fire extinguisher with a full state, and the demonstration of the water throwing function.
In the past 10 years, the research and development of AG600 has consciously transformed the encouragement and ardent expectations of the party and the country into a powerful driving force to promote various tasks, and implemented the innovation-driven development strategy in depth. , "main contractor-supplier", "small core, big collaboration" and other win-win innovations, the development of the AG600 project has entered the fast lane of high-quality development.
The development of the "Kunlong" AG600 has broken the situation that there have been no newly developed models in the ranks of amphibious special aircraft for many years.
Adhere to independent innovation
The "5.12" Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008 and the subsequent frequent snow and ice disasters in the south, forest fires, and marine accidents all exposed the problems of the emergency rescue system, such as the small number of aviation equipment, single type, and unreasonable structure. The Emergency Rescue System Plan was promulgated immediately, and the development of the large-scale amphibious aircraft AG600, a heavy weapon of a great country to meet the needs of forest fire fighting and water rescue, began.
According to the design concept of "amphibious, one machine with multiple types, and series development", the AG600 aircraft adopts a single hull, a single-wing layout on the cantilever, and a retractable landing gear at the front three points. The whole aircraft has more than 50,000 structures, 2 More than 10,000 system parts and more than 1 million standard parts.
It is rare to develop such a large special aircraft that can take off and land on both land and water. Looking at the world, it is rare.
With the promotion of model research and flight test work, domestic technical reserves are insufficient, research and development funds are tight, and the development history is blank so that there is no experience for this model. In addition, problems such as aircraft weight, rescue radius, and stall characteristic indicators are all suitable for low-altitude and low-speed aircraft. The AG600 performing fire-fighting missions and search-and-rescue missions poses a challenge.
The problems existing in the project gradually emerged, and the development team also accelerated their pace.
Round after round of plan design, countless large-scale tests, equipment safety tests, airworthiness review meetings, manufacturing compliance inspection procedures, and final assembly instructions, the difficulties and obstacles encountered are too numerous to enumerate. The major airframe suppliers jointly manufacture, Enterprises, institutions and universities participated in the project, and the research and development team worked hand in hand with the participating units to move forward. With a sense of mission and responsibility of "the most important weapon of the country, saving the people from fire and water", they insisted on independent innovation and broke through the high-wave-resistant hull, air The key technology of hydrodynamic layout has developed the world's tallest landing gear with the most complex retractable structure; it has solved the problems of complex ship-shaped fuselage manufacturing and air and watertight riveting, and initially established a large-scale amphibious aircraft technology and manufacturing standard system ;The airworthiness verification and certification work of AG600 aircraft has also greatly improved the level of domestic civil aircraft airworthiness compliance verification, effectively promoted the soundness and perfection of the civil aircraft airworthiness system, and cultivated a professional appointed representative for the civil aircraft development industry The team has filled the gaps in the technical system and special airworthiness clauses of large amphibious aircraft, and opened a new era of AG600.
The AG600 technology verification machine has successively achieved its first flight on land, water, and sea, and the verification test flight of the 9-ton water pump fire extinguishing function.
usable, easy to use, early to use
With the goal of developing a usable, easy-to-use, and early-to-use aircraft, the research and development team conducted in-depth research on the market and user firefighting and rescue use modes. At the same time, combined with the problems in the previous development, the improvement and optimization technology demonstration work was carried out.
On the one hand, follow the forward design process, comprehensively sort out the top-level design input, and identify key design requirements such as aircraft maneuverability based on mission usage scenarios and operational technical characteristics.
In the midsummer of 2018, Cui Weizheng, the deputy director of the Marketing Department of South China Company, and his team endured extreme cold weather and strong altitude sickness, traveled all over Southwest China, collected environmental data on plateaus and lakes, captured special mission requirements, and prepared for the future of AG600 aircraft. Provide effective support for plateau use.
A few months later, Cui Wei came to Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province together with the designer team.
The forest area is high in altitude, surrounded by mountains, rugged and changeable. Aviation fire extinguishing is the fastest and most effective means of fighting fires here. Together with the research team, Cui Wei visited various areas of the forest area in a few days and handed over the A research report on the capability requirements of AG600 aircraft for high altitude fire fighting.
In one year, Cui Wei traveled alone for more than 180 days.
They handed over the stacks of results from market research to the designers of the R&D team.
This is the first step of positive design driven by demand.
On the other hand, combined with the major scientific and technological achievements made by the technology demonstrator in independent innovation, the overall layout and landing gear system of "upper wing, T-tail, front three-point landing gear, large aspect ratio single-step hull, etc. On the basis of "power system", fully tap the potential of the existing aircraft platform, and carry out the optimization design of the overall, aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, structural strength, various systems and five properties.
In the initial stage of aircraft improvement and optimization design, "whether to change", "how to change", "major or small change" are problems that plague the team.
The contradiction between the large and small problems exposed by the various tests of the technology verification machine, the original design indicators, and the design goal of "usable, easy to use, and early use" has gradually found a balance point.
In round after round of demonstrations, the improvement plan of the pressurized cabin ranged from adding a pressurized cabin at the nose, adding a pressurized cabin in front of the 32 frame to a full-machine pressurized cabin. The team overcame zero industry-related experience, expert doubts, funding Pressure, the impact of the epidemic and many other influences finally effectively guaranteed the design indicators.
In this way, the research and development team overcame many challenges one by one in terms of the new airfoil, the key technology of the control system for throwing water and pumping fire extinguishing missions, the new fly-by-wire flight control system and the integrated avionics system.
The huge pressure did not break the team, but ignited their fighting spirit.
Within one year after improvement and optimization, the R&D team was under tremendous pressure to integrate resources, collaborate and unite as one, take responsibility, and work hard. Through theoretical design and experimental verification, the R&D team continued to overcome the stall separation control of multi-engine propeller aircraft wings, Key technical problems such as excessive peak value of water resistance and hull design with large load coefficient.
In 2020, the whole line of research and development will work day and night, so that the preliminary design and detailed design of the brand-new AG600M aircraft will be completed in only 8 months. AG600M (1003 aircraft) will complete the production of parts and delivery of large parts in 8 months, and complete in 6 months. Final assembly and commissioning, the ground test before the first flight was completed in 5 months to realize the first flight, and the first flight on water was completed immediately after the first flight, and the 12-ton water throwing test in full state was completed.
The development team continues to interpret the "Kunlong Spirit" with practical actions, and refreshes the history of the development cycle of large-scale new research aircraft in China time and time again.
The improved and optimized AG600M aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 60 tons, a maximum water injection capacity of 12 tons, a cruising altitude of 7,600 meters, a pressurized cabin, and a fly-by-wire flight control and integrated avionics system.
The improved and optimized AG600M aircraft has been significantly improved in terms of safety, mission performance, comfort and economy, with a wider range of applications and higher mission efficiency, realizing a true "full state" and "new configuration" .
This is the fruitful achievement of the research and development team overcoming difficulties and overcoming difficulties, and it is a step closer to the goal of AG600 aircraft as soon as possible to take on important tasks in the construction of emergency rescue systems and natural disaster prevention systems.
Mature large aircraft development team
In the ten years of "Kunlong" AG600, the development team has always stood at the height of building a high-level and safe China, and from the perspective of promoting the development of China's emergency rescue system and the national natural disaster prevention system, to further understand and understand the significance of AG600 development.
Party building and model development are integrated and promoted, leading the direction at critical moments.
The research and development team focuses on model tasks, and is at the forefront of solving scientific research and testing problems in key areas and links of development such as market order acquisition, key technology breakthroughs, and new product design. On the main battlefield, the backbone of the party members charged ahead, set up a temporary party branch with the production area, and jointly established the party member commando team and the Luoyang youth commando team with the supplier, constantly inspiring the responsibility of the R&D team to "own the model" and "who can give me up" Indomitable fighting spirit has made the AG600 the battle fortress.
The management system of civil aircraft development projects has been optimized, and the foundation for high-quality development of models has been consolidated.
The party group of the Aviation Industry Group is at a high level, the administrative command system is overall planned, the on-site command system is scientifically organized, and the construction of the project management model is systematically promoted. "Structural advantages, strengthen the multi-dimensional management and control of the six main lines, and ensure the successful completion of the research and development tasks.
This is a problem-solving method to meet the urgent needs of the construction of an emergency rescue system in the new era. It is a way to solve problems under the situation of multi-business collaboration and multi-element integration. It is also a problem-solving strategy to consolidate the foundation of high-quality development and improve the ability to develop civil aircraft.
A team of high-quality innovative and mature talents is available, and the intellectual support for model development is full of motivation.
In order to realize the early delivery of AG600 and the development of AG600 platform, serialization and genealogy in the future, South China Company is more thirsty for talents than ever before.
Focusing closely on the needs of model development, open up the road of recruiting talents, gather talents from all over the world, insist on training while introducing, do a good job in the construction of three teams of R&D and design, assembly manufacturing, and scientific research and flight testing, and introduce senior technical experts from the industry and top international Structural strength professional talents, relying on academician workstations, postdoctoral scientific research workstations, and doctoral workstations, build a high-end talent R&D and innovation platform, formulate a three-year rolling plan for skilled talents, and hire mature skilled talents... Today's AG600 R&D team has changed from an average of ten years ago Under the age of 28, the scientific research flight test team with weak technical experience has grown into a mature large aircraft research and development team in the environment of "knowing talents, loving talents, respecting talents and using talents".
The backbone of emergency rescue
On December 15, 2022, AVIC South China and Jiangsu Xiangyue General Aviation Co., Ltd. officially signed a purchase contract for five "Kunlong" AG600M (fire-fighting) aircraft, accelerating the market for large amphibious aircraft independently developed by China process.
The signing of the purchase contract for 5 aircrafts has exceeded the target of "three aircraft orders" at the beginning of the project, marking the first step of commercial success of the AG600 model.
Over the past year, the research and development team of Aviation Industry Group has overcome various practical difficulties, innovated to build an industry-finance community model, created a new business model integrating user units, manufacturing units and operating units, and a new model of collaborative application of emergency rescue equipment. Urgent, think what users think, and jointly provide services for target users, which has won positive response and recognition from the market.
The official signing of the 5 aircraft purchase contracts this time marks a solid step forward in the market application of the AG600 aircraft. It has made preliminary preparations to provide services for the national ministries and commissions and local provinces and cities during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. The construction of the rescue system plays an important role.
In the ten years of the new era, China's aviation industry is booming, and the development of large amphibious aircraft has entered the fast track of high-quality development. New achievements have been made, and it will soon become the backbone of emergency rescue.
Extraordinary ten years, fruitful and outstanding achievements; extraordinary ten years, rain or shine, start a new journey.
(People's Daily Overseas Edition reporter: Yan Bing)