The Oxai Aircraft M2 Skywave amphibian is the smallest airplane at this year’s ABACE show, but it is attracting as much interest as the larger and more sophisticated business jets and helicopters that surround the M2 on the ABACE static display.

Roger Mao, president and CEO of Shanghai-based Oxai Aircraft and chief designer of the diminutive airplane, said he expects it to make a first flight in about three months, pending CAAC clearance to fly. Mao and his team have been working on the M2 for the past six years, he told AIN. In addition to Mao, engineers from the U.S. and Germany contributed to the design, he added.

While the M2 looks somewhat similar to the U.S. Icon A5 amphibious light sport aircraft, especially the wing leading edge’s outboard cuff design to aid in stall prevention, Mao explained that the M2’s layout is much more of an “Eastern style,” with smoother lines and nothing like the A5’s aggressively sporty industrial design features.

The M2 is powered by a 100-hp Rotax 912iS piston engine, which can run on autogas. The empty weight of the airframe, which is 90 percent carbon-fiber composite, is 350 kg (772 lb) and maximum takeoff weight 650 kg (1,433 lb). With 100 liters (26 U.S. gallons) of fuel, the M2 will fly up to 1,000 km (540 nm). Wingspan is 10.2 m (33.5 ft).

Its main landing gear, with wheels mounted onto spring steel legs, folds up and outboard into sponsons mounted on the bottom of the fuselage. Avionics include two large Garmin displays. Flight controls are conventional, with two control sticks in the cockpit.

So far, Oxai Aircraft has received four deposits for the RMB1.8 million ($278,000) M2.