World's currently largest amphibious aircraft has maiden flight (in China)

originally posted by: Montana
It seems to be more of an evolutionary improvement over the previous model Chinese amphib the Harbin SH-5. The two are similar size and shape. They apparently only made 6 or 7 of the SH-5s, I wonder what new mission has been discovered to justify the development of a new airframe?

Its firefight and obviously its to replace the old ones. The inside is obviously going to have the latest tech compare to the old ones. They say don't fix what isn't broken. If the airframe works. Then maintain it.