China-made AS700 airship makes longest journey in test flight

A prototype of the AS700 multipurpose civilian airship made its longest journey through Tuesday and Wednesday, covering three provincial regions, according to State-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China, the nation's leading aircraft maker.

The airship took off from Jingmen Zhanghe Airport in Hubei province at 6:01 am on Tuesday and made brief stopovers at two civilian airports in Hunan province before arriving at its destination, an airship service site in Guilin, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, at 12:44 pm on Wednesday, AVIC said in a news release, adding that the airship flew nearly 1,000 kilometers in the test flight.

This marked the longest -— in terms of both distance and duration -— flight ever fulfilled by any domestically built manned airship in China, it said.

During the trans-provincial test flight, which recorded nearly 13 hours of flying time, two pilots operated the airship to fly within altitudes ranging from 500 meters to 1,990 meters, at speeds from 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, the company noted.

The operation was intended to test the AS700 model's capability and performance in long-time, long-distance flight and check the skills of the pilots as well as the ground support crew, according to AVIC.

Designed and built by the Special Aircraft Research Institute, an AVIC subsidiary in Jingmen, the AS700's research and development started in August 2018, with the main aim of meeting tourist demand for sightseeing air tours.

Propelled by piston engines, the airship has a maximum takeoff weight of 4.15 metric tons and a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

The craft can carry one pilot and nine tourists and is capable of flying 700 kilometers and staying in the air for up to 10 hours.