The World's Largest Amphibious Aircraft - China

The new Chinese amphibious aircraft is almost the size of an Airbus A320. One of the possible uses suggested for this plane would be for aerial fire fighting. Now, if the plane was to skim the surface of a lake or river to take aboard water, how large would the lake, etc., have to be? Pretty large aircraft for water use. China is building anything that it can imagine. lakotahope
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China sets year for amphibious flight

No design details about the Dragon 600 were given out in the Chinese media this week. However, a report in the China Economic Review in August said the Dragon 600 "is a larger version of the SH-5, a seaplane that had a production run of four."

by Staff Writers
Beijing (UPI) Oct 22, 2009
The first flight of possibly the world's largest amphibious plane is set for 2013 with mass production to begin in 2015, according to Chinese media.

The Chinese government announced in June that it would develop and produce the Dragon 600, similar in size to an Airbus A320 passenger plane. Aviation Industry Corp. of China was given the task of putting the project together, but no date for a maiden flight was set.

The plane could be used for tasks such as emergency rescue, fighting forest fires and sea patrols, Hu Haiyin, deputy general manager AVIC, said in a report this week by the national Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Hu said that market research indicated a domestic market for 60 craft in the next 15 years. But the Xinhua report gave no indication of how large an international market could be, if one exists at all.

AVIC plans to have around 1,500 employees working on the project, mainly based at their facilities southwest of the Zhuhai airport in the southern Guangdong region. The first construction phase is scheduled for completion in 2012.

Since the government announced the project, analysts have suspected that the size of the plane could also make it suitable for long military surveillance missions. It could be especially suitable to missions in the South China Sea, an analyst said on Radio Australia in June after the first announcement.

A report on the China Daily news Web site this week said Chen Zhengguo, the project's chief engineer, believed the Dragon 600 could carry out long-range air-sea rescues and be deployed on anti-submarine missions.

The news puts AVIC further into the manufacturing spotlight. AVIC, a consortium of aircraft manufacturers, signed a deal in January with European aircraft maker Airbus. Their joint venture business will build a factory in Harbin, northeast China to jointly produce composite material parts and components for the new wide-body A350 aircraft by the end of next year.

In March China's CITIC Bank granted a $2.2 billion credit line to AVIC, Xinhua reported. "Aviation is a strategic industry for our country's development, and the restructuring of AVIC has given CITIC Bank a vast opportunity for business cooperation," an unnamed bank official was quoted as saying.

AVIC was created last year out of a merger of two state aircraft makers with sights set on big projects, including a locally developed regional jet, to reduce China's reliance on Boeing and Airbus. Combined 2008 sales for the two companies that merged were $24.3 billion, compared with $60.1 billion for Boeing, the report said.

No design details about the Dragon 600 were given out in the Chinese media this week. However, a report in the China Economic Review in August said the Dragon 600 "is a larger version of the SH-5, a seaplane that had a production run of four."

But the now aging ShuiHong-5 was not a resounding success, analysts have argued. Up to six of the SH-5 aircraft were made in 1984 and 1985, all by the Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corp. The maiden flight was eight years before manufacturing began. Design work started in the early 1970s but work was delayed due to the upheaval of China's debilitating Cultural Revolution.

The planes, all operated by the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force, are essentially flying boats with only limited beaching capability. With their high wings they have been compared to the PBY Catalina, HU-16 Albatross and the Bombardier 415.

It was to replace China's aging Soviet Beriev Be-6 planes, known to NATO as Madge. Despite the SH-5 mimicking Western-made planes in design and being striking in appearance, it was largely a technical flop, according to a report on SinoDefence.com.

The all-metal SH-5 has an unpressurised cabin and with its four DongAn (DEMC) Wojiang-5A1 turboprop engines, each rated at 3,150ehp, is underpowered. As a result it flies at lower altitude and slower than designed for.

However, the aircraft can carry two Type 23-1 23mm cannons in a dorsal turret. The weapon bay carries mines, depth charges or bombs. Underwing hardpoints are used for two YJ-1 (C-101) anti-ship missiles on the inner units and up to six lightweight homing torpedoes, depth charges or other disposable weapons on the outer units.

Family Survives 12 Hours at Sea after Ditching Aircraft

A happy ending to a flight over the Florida Keys is always a pleasure to hear or read. I just want to compliment everyone for keeping their heads about them and for at least having the life preservers available and everyone informed of their duties. In this case a life raft probably wasn't warranted, maybe not even feasible to have on board. I wonder if the pilot had a waterproof bag with a backup radio and maybe flares on board? If so, maybe it wasn't easily found or lost in the escape. I dunno. A little kid like this always comes in handy with 20/20 hindsight available and in ditches in water landings... lakotahope


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ABC
By SUZAN CLARKE and RICH MCHUGH
Oct. 12, 2009

Three people survived a small plane crash off the Florida Keys by clinging to a lobster-trap buoy until the Coast Guard rescued them the next morning.

Peeter Jakobson, 61, was flying the single-engine aircraft toward his home in Marathon Key Friday night. His wife was having a birthday party that weekend.

Jakobson was performing his pre-landing check about 15 minutes away from Marathon when he heard a subtle bang at around 9:30 p.m. Then, the engine stalled and the plane started to go down.

Jakobson, a doctor, called out a Mayday to air traffic controllers in Miami and relayed the plane's position.

"We didn't know what was going to happen," said Whitney Page, Jakobson's stepdaughter, 26, who was on the craft with her husband, Ben Page, 31.

With five minutes to impact, the three prepared for the inevitable. Whitney Page got out life jackets -– two of them –- and her husband was shown the handle to the plane's door and told what to do when craft hit the water.

The three were out of the plane and onto the wing of the aircraft within seconds after the impact.

"It was black; total darkness," Whitney Page said on "Good Morning America" today, saying that they were shocked to find themselves out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

The family tied the life jackets together, and floated in the warm ocean until they came to a buoy.

They clung to it for 12 hours while hoping to be rescued, and could see and hear rescue boats and airplanes in the distance.

Even so, they knew rescuers were searching a large area, about 2,300 square miles.

"They say needle in the haystack, and that's what we were," said Ben Page of Tampa, Fla.

Page, who had been bleeding from the head, also was worried about another danger.

"I was thinking of open wounds in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. And sharks. It was on all of our minds," he said. "We just tried to stay calm. Lots of prayer. The Lord's Prayer was said many times."

Rescue Crews Arrive

They spent 12 hours in the ocean, and were stung by countless jellyfish.

Around 10 a.m. Saturday, the three were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Whitney Page laughed and cried.

Her husband called their survival nothing short of a miracle.

Tuskee Airman Sues Vacaville Airport

I am thinking about the following article and trying to decide where my thoughts side. Either with the airport operator who considers a flight instructor giving free lessons to students a running business, or the flight instructor, operating under former Tuskeegee Airman Retired Lt. Col James Warren. The point between the two would be the payment of $500 a month for running the business and the way in which it was handled by the airport management.

Apparently, twice Warren and his flight instructor were told to cease and desist flight operations because of his "personal flight training program" that gives free lessons to aspiring students.
Mr. Warren is calling this a case of discrimination because he believes no one has had to be sanctioned in this fashion... lakotahope
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KTXL-TV
VACAVILLE - James Warren, a retired lieutenant colonel with the US Army Air Corps, faced racism as a Tuskegee airman. Now, more than 60 years later, the 86-year-old pilot claims the Nut Tree Airport is discriminating against him because he's black.

According to a lawsuit filed against Solano County and two airport managers, Warren and a flight instructor were in his plane last September when a manager confronted and threatened him if he didn't end a flight lesson immediately.

"No one has ever had to face that type of sanction," Warren told FOX40's Rowena Shaddox. "They called the [Solano County] Sheriff on my instructor."

A few days after the confrontation, Warren said another manager from the Nut Tree Airport sent him a letter ordering him to end all flights having to do with his own scholarship program, in which he flies aspiring pilots on his plane free of charge.

"They said I was running a flight of business, so I had to cease and desist," Warren said. "They said I'd have to pay $500 a month."

Solano County public communications officer Steve Pierce said he had no knowledge of Warren escalating his claim of racial confrontation to airport or county officials before the lawsuit was filed, but did say Warren's relationship with the airport was that of a business.

"It's a small airport," Pierce told FOX40 News by phone Tuesday morning. "For most people, there's not a distinction between a 'personal' and 'business' relationship."

According to Pierce, even if Warren wasn't seeking compensation for his lessons, Warren acting as a flight instructor engaged him in a business relationship with the airport, and that meant he was subject to the same fees that every other flight instructor would have to pay.

"There are certain guidelines that are consistent with FAA rules that we follow," Pierce said, including compensation for business use of an airport that is federally-funded.

Pierce, speaking on behalf of Solano County, could not comment on the pending litigation, adding that the County had yet to be served with a copy of the lawsuit.

Ironically, another Russian aircraft has crashed in Africa. The nations of Africa, must have something to do with this high rate of crashes that all belong to Russia. Poor maintenance and poor conditions, along with lower training disciplines probably hamper the airworthiness of any aircraft. But, it seems that 95% of aircraft crashes I read about occur to Russian built planes. I hate to see any aircraft crash and especially, anyone get hurt or killed because of a crash.

This craft went down as part of a demonstration for Libya's military. Libya is seen as revamping their military and Russia is doing its best to stay economically sound by selling all of its weapon systems. Systems from advanced long range missiles, both anti air and land attack varieties, to Iran and more fighters to India. We all sell military technology to whoever has the money and is dependent on the seller nations' politics.... C'est la guerre... lakotahope

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World

Libyan Air Force MiG-23 fighter crashes at air show in Tripoli

TRIPOLI, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - A Libyan Air Force MiG-23 Flogger fighter crashed on Wednesday during a demonstration flight at the Third Libyan Aviation Exhibition.

The aircraft crashed about 2 kilometers from observation platforms at the Libyan Aviation Conference & Exhibition, which runs October 4-8.

According to preliminary reports, the pilot died.

Production of the "third-generation" MiG-23 started in 1970 and ended in 1985 with over 5,000 aircraft built.

Its various modifications are currently operated by several former Soviet republics and traditional recipients of Soviet arms including Armenia, Algeria, Angola, Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkmenistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. ... RIA Novosti