China State Television was quoted by Hongkong's South China Morning Post as showing live images of the AG600 lifting off from Zhuhai airport in Guangdong province. The official news agency Xinhua described the aircraft as the “protector spirit of the sea, islands and reefs”.The state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China spent almost eight years developing the aircraft, which is roughly the size of a Boeing Co 737 and is designed to carry out marine rescues and battle forest fires, which had previously been expected to make its first flight earlier this year, but for indeterminate reasons was delayed after ground tests took place in April.The AG600’s chief designer, Huang Lingcai, was quoted in the official China Daily earlier this month as saying it can make round trips without refuelling from the southern island province of Hainan to James Shoal, claimed by China and which is close to Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. It said the AG600 is powered by four turboprop engines and can carry 50 people during maritime search-and-rescue missions and scoop up 12 metric tonnes of water within 20 seconds for fire fighting trips.It can use conventional airports and also land and take-off from the sea.It has a maximum flight range of 4,500km and a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes.The aircraft has received 17 orders so far from Chinese government departments and Chinese companies. 

(Comment: China is in the midst of a massive military modernisation programme, ranging from testing anti-satellite missiles to building stealth fighters and the country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, to add to an existing one bought from Ukraine.)