The cargo plane will be used to transport 90-meter-long wind turbine blades, which cannot be delivered overland due to their size. It is expected that this device will revolutionize the field of renewable energy sources.
Recently, the wind energy industry has been booming. According to forecasts by European energy companies, wind will be able to provide about 10 percent of global electricity generation by 2025. By 2050, approximately 140 countries plan to completely switch to energy from renewable sources, most of which will be provided by wind. Although there are physical reasons why a complete transition of this kind is impossible, it is quite clear that wind generation will exceed its current level at least several times.
In this regard, developers of energy projects strive to create powerful wind turbines that minimize specific capital costs and the cost of a unit of energy. For example, in 2023, the world's largest and most powerful wind turbine Vestas V236-15 MW was launched off the coast of Denmark. The power of the installation is 15 megawatts, and the length of the blades is 115.5 meters (the longest blades in the world today). In the near future, this record will be broken by the Chinese H260-18MW offshore windmill with a capacity of 18 megawatts: the length of its blades will be 128 meters each.
Why do engineers build turbines with long blades? Such installations cover a large area, capture more wind and produce more electricity.
Turbines with long and bulky blades are usually used only in offshore projects, that is, not on land, but in coastal areas. The main reason is transportation. So far, the transportation of such components is possible only with the help of special sea vessels, land-based equipment will not cope with this.
If wind turbines with sufficiently long blades could be installed on land, this would produce 20 percent more energy compared to modern onshore turbines. In addition, they would reduce energy costs by 35 percent.
Seven years ago, the American energy startup Radia, headed by Mark Lundstrom, a rocket scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conceived the idea of building a WindRunner transport aircraft that could carry huge blades for onshore wind turbines.
The WindRunner will be longer than the field of Wembley Stadium in England (its length is 105 meters) and 32 meters longer than the Boeing 747-8, the longest passenger aircraft in the world
Image source: RADIA INC
All this time, Lundstrom kept the project a secret. Together with a team of engineers, he worked to improve the design so that the WindRunner would not fall apart when it came into contact with the runway. The scientist told about his plane only now, after completing a series of successful tests.
The length of the WindRunner will be 108.5 meters, height — 24 meters, wingspan — 79.5 meters, carrying capacity — 80 tons. The cargo liner will be able to reach speeds up to M = 0.6 (Mach number). With such dimensions, the aircraft will need almost a two-kilometer runway.
Comparison of the sizes of WindRunner, AN-124 and Boeing 747-400
Image source: RADIA INC
For comparison, this car will be longer than the field of Wembley Stadium in England (its length is 105 meters) and 32 meters longer than the Boeing 747-8, the longest passenger aircraft in the world. The WindRunner will be able to carry blades from 45 to 91 meters long and weighing up to 35 tons.
The Radia team expects commercial production of the aircraft to begin by the end of 2027. The company already has its first client, a private electricity producer, who bought a one—gigawatt project in Nevada (USA).
Lundstrom explained that the main task of WindRunner is to accelerate the growth of wind energy. However, the dimensions of the aircraft allow it to find other applications: for example, in the military sphere — for the transportation of heavy equipment.
The WindRunner will be able to carry blades from 45 to 91 meters long and weighing up to 35 tons
Image source: RADIA INC
It should be noted that until February 2022, the largest aircraft in the world was considered to be the Ukrainian AN -225 "Mriya" ("Dream"). In the 1980s, the aircraft in a single copy was designed and built by the O. K. Antonov Experimental Design Bureau at the Kiev Mechanical Plant. Initially, the aircraft was created to transport the Soviet space shuttle Buran and rocket boosters Energia, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the AN-225 became the property of Ukraine and it was quickly found another use.
The length of the AN-225 Mriya was 84 meters, the height was almost 19 meters, the wingspan was 88.4 meters, and the payload was 253 tons. It was destroyed during the conflict in Ukraine.
