A new variant of China's MA-60 passenger aircraft, designed to facilitate maritime search and rescue operations, made its first flight in Shaanxi province recently, according to Aviation Industry Corp of China, the nation's dominant aircraft manufacturer.

The State-owned industry conglomerate said that a prototype of the MA-60 search-and-rescue variant took off from the Yanliang Airport in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, on Thursday afternoon and stayed about 80 minutes in the air before landing on the same site. This marks the beginning of the variant's flight test phase, it noted.

Project managers from AVIC said that for a long time, China's maritime search and rescue capabilities have been constrained by challenges such as slow response time and limited search coverage during long-distance missions in complex environments.

To deal with such challenges, designers from Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group, a subsidiary of AVIC, decided to develop a platform based on the MA-60 and deploy it to fulfill maritime search-and-rescue tasks.

Its baseline model, the MA-60, is a turboprop-powered airliner and has been in service in several countries including China, Laos, Zambia and Sri Lanka since the early 2000s.

Beside search and rescue, the new MA-60 variant can also be used in disaster site surveys and personnel transport, and can be deployed in plateau regions, according to Miao Zhimin, the variant's chief designer.

He said that the development and deployment of the search-and-rescue aircraft will significantly enhance the response speed and coverage of Chinese authorities in emergencies at sea.

The designer noted that the project was launched in December 2021 and its overall design was approved in September 2023.

By the end of 2024, all of the first prototype's major components had been manufactured and delivered to the final assembly line. In May this year, the first prototype was assembled and handed over to the flight test team.

On Tuesday, all of the ground equipment tests and flight test preparatory work had been completed, clearing the way for the maiden flight, according to Miao.

The search-and-rescue plane measures nearly 25 meters in length, with a wingspan of over 29 meters. With a maximum takeoff weight of 21.8 metric tons, it has a maximum cruising speed of 460 kilometers per hour, a flight ceiling of 7.6 km, and a top search range of 3,800 km.

When used for personnel transport, the aircraft can carry two pilots and 24 passengers. In a typical search-and-rescue task, it can carry maritime safety professionals to search and locate people in distress and then drop rescue packages, with inflatable boats and food inside, and direct rescue ships or helicopters to the scene, according to Miao.