It’s a sea monster! China unveils world's largest amphibious aircraft used to fight forest fires and perform marine rescues

The new Chinese Aircraft looks suspiciously like the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2 patrol plane; same T-tail, same hull, same hull-mounted main landing gear pods and same engine arrangement -- except the new aircraft is slightly larger, four wheeled main gear and has six-bladed propellers instead of five bladed propellers. The US-2 in turn is based on the PS-1 which in turn used technology from the Kawanishi H8K, Grumman HU-16 and the very strikingly similar Martin P-5B Marlin (except twin engines). All were World War II designs.

Hope the quality of the metal used in construction is a lot higher standard than the stuff they manufacture for sale to the West, because Chinese steel stock products are dire...Stainless steel that rusts before your eyes, steel bolts and nuts which strip threads before correct tightening torque is reached, components which crack and fatigue far too easily.... etc etc...

Stuff and nonsense!! Try the Martin Mars or the Saro Princess flying boats. Both were much larger than this.

It looks a bit of a bad tempered beast! Might it smile when it's soaking innocents beneath?

Wasn't there an article just a few days ago showing a Chinese amphibious aircraft crashing during take-off on its inaugural flight.

May be is a camouflage for military purposes.

Looks exactly like the Japanese US1/PS1.

The Spruce Goose was never actually used in WWII as your article says!!

The Spruce Goose was far bigger. The Martin Mars also.. And the Saunders Roe Princess. Of comparable size were the Blohm and Voss 238 and the Short Shetland. Every one of these aircraft is over 60 years old. The Martin Mars still flies to this day.. Lousy reporting by the Daily Mail.

I always loved the old Sunderland.

"Before the AG600, the largest amphibious cast was the H-4 Hercules, known as the Spruce Goose, used in WW2".............DM really need to hire someone with even a basic knowledge of aviation. The H-4 Spruce Goose was NOT Amphibious. It was a Flying Boat that was incapable of landing on a runway......and it was never used in WW2......It flew only once in 1947.

No it wasn't the biggest. The biggest is the Martin JRM Mars that has max take off weight of 75 tonnes, that's about 25% more. They were produced from 1945 and one is still in service in Sproat Lake. But what bother researching eh DM?

The Saunders-Roe SR.45 Princess was a British flying boat aircraft built by Saunders-Roe, based in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The Princess was the largest all-metal flying boat ever constructed. At 156 tonne max take-off weight it was three times the weight of this Chinese aircraft. As usual, no research done by the DM - just reprinting news releases. Such lazy journalism.

It doesn't look that big.

Why is the old Soviet flag in photo 3?

Bridge or bust

Looks like a modernized Short S.25 Sunderland.

The Hercules was/is a flying boat, not an amphibian. Attempting to land on a runway would have resulted in a long steak of splinters and aluminium.

Looks like a copy of Japan's K-2 seaplane.

Also exceeded by the Saunders Roe Princess of 1952 which was 5m longer and 66M wingspan. Isn't it about time the DM employed some real researchers rather than people who make things up - OH forgot it is the DM.