BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- China has gained constant progress in strengthening its homegrown Modern Ark multipurpose aircraft family with new members and capabilities, according to its developer, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
A new member of the Modern Ark aircraft family, the MA60 firefighting airplane has successfully made its maiden flight recently, a major step forward in the further development and airworthiness certification works of this new model, said the AVIC, the country's leading planemaker.
Thus, the homegrown multipurpose civil aircraft family adds a new member with firefighting specialties, following the existing members for passenger and cargo transport as well as the operations of artificial precipitation enhancement and remote sensing, respectively.
The MA60 firefighting aircraft is a medium-sized fixed-wing plane model tailored to serve forest firefighting and other emergency missions.
It is developed by the AVIC XAC Commercial Aircraft Co., Ltd. in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, in full compliance with the airworthiness regulation of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
The new model of the Modern Ark family enriches the means of China's forest fire protection and sustains the country's construction of its emergency rescue system.
Inheriting the mature technologies and advantages of the Modern Ark aircraft family, the MA60 firefighting aircraft features high cruising speed, long range, performance at low speed at low altitude, and high reliability.
This new aircraft model is capable of quickly transferring from missions of firefighting and transport to enabling it to serve the emergency rescue of people and freight. Therefore, it has significant advantages in disaster relief.
Prior to this new model, the aircraft models for precipitation enhancement and remote sensing of the Modern Ark aircraft family have been playing their roles across the country.
By now, the developer has delivered a total of four MA60 precipitation enhancement airplanes to China Meteorological Administration. Thanks to the airplanes' performance in weather modification, they have served in fields such as major event support, artificial rain and snow enhancement, and drought and flood prevention and control, according to the AVIC.
Installed with high-performance remote sensing equipment, the remote-sensing specialized MA60 aircraft is capable of serving operations such as remote-sensing detection and scientific research.
Recently, an MA60 remote-sensing aircraft has just completed an aerial "scanning" mission, conducting a health check of the black soil in China's major agricultural province of Heilongjiang. ■
