Designfax weekly eMagazine

Subscribe Today!

Archives

View Archives

Partners

Manufacturing Center
Product Spotlight

Modern Applications News
Metalworking Ideas For
Today's Job Shops

Tooling and Production
Strategies for large
metalworking plants

Builder of largest airplane in history wants U.S. military as customer

Radia's WindRunner for Defense is planned to have a volume of greater than 6,800 m³. [Credit: Image courtesy of Radia]

 

 

A Colorado startup called Radia aims to build the biggest airplane (by volume) in history, and it wants the U.S. military to be one of its clients. At the recent Air & Space Forces Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Radia announced its plans to build WindRunner for Defense, an ultra-large cargo aircraft purpose-built to move military equipment around.

Radia first made news last year when it announced its plans to design, develop, and build a giant airplane called WindRunner to carry huge turbine blades and other components to wind-energy building sites. WindRunner is longer than a football field with a payload volume 12 times that of a Boeing 747-400F.

WindRunner was designed to carry the largest payloads ever moved by air. [Image courtesy: Radia]

 

 

The company proposed that its unique, front-loading aircraft with a wingspan of 261 ft (20 ft longer than a Boeing 747-400F) and an overall length of 356 ft (127 ft longer than the 747) will enable "the deployment of the largest and best-performing wind turbines of the present and future to locations currently inaccessible to wind energy at a scale and speed that was previously impossible." Total capacity was estimated to be about 80 tons. The aircraft is capable of landing on short, semi-prepared runways including those made of packed dirt.

WindRunner size comparison to current military planes. [Credit: Images courtesy of Radia]

 

 

Now, the company wants to build a specialized version of the WindRunner to deliver intact, mission-ready military systems "to austere or degraded locations, accelerating Agile Combat Employment (ACE) and giving joint and combined forces more options." Radia says WindRunner for Defense will provide "roll-on/roll-off ready" transport for different types of military vehicles, meaning the ground vehicles, planes, or helicopters are flown completely assembled and ready to operate. Helicopters, for example, are frequently disassembled for transport on some planes.

The envisioned volume capability is impressive: approximately 7x the volume of a C-5 and 12x the volume of a C-17 (greater than 6,800 m³). Radia says WindRunner for Defense could be capable of enabling roll-on/roll-off delivery of these full systems ready to operate on arrival:

• 6 CH-47 Chinooks without any disassembly or reassembly, or
• 4 CV-22 Ospreys directly to the fight, or
• 4 F-16s or 4 F-35Cs, or
• 12 Apache helicopters (vs. 2 Apache helicopters on a C-17)

[Credit: Image courtesy of Radia]

 

 

The company says there are many other benefits to its plane's huge load capacity, including:

• Responsive Space Force Support: Enables booster movements in hours instead of days and recovery of landed rocket cargo vehicles for re-use.
• Operates where others can't: Short takeoff and landing from ~1,800-m unpaved runways, reaching distributed, austere, or storm-damaged locations inaccessible to conventional aircraft (although the company has not released details about how much space the mammoth plane needs to turn around or how many airstrips/airports can handle the special weight requirements of a fully loaded WindRunner for Defense).
• Fully compatible with standard ground equipment: No specialized loaders or bespoke facilities necessary.
• Minimizes total flight hours: WindRunner moves complete systems faster, cutting operational complexity, cost, and exposure to disruption or attack.
• Targeting 2030 for a takeoff date: Employs certified, proven components with a development approach targeting first flight by the end of the decade.
• Mission flexibility: Well-suited for combat sustainment, NATO/Allied mobility, Arctic operations, and rapid humanitarian/disaster response.

Radia says the new plane is designed to complement aging but indispensable airlift fleets and not replace existing transporters.

Radia plans to produce a fleet of certified aircraft at its U.S. assembly site. To date, the company is more than halfway through the time required to design, build, and certify an aircraft. The company has partnered with leading aerospace firms to design and build the monster WindRunner aircraft, whether it be for wind turbine components transport or for military assets. The company has yet to release details on how the aircraft will be powered or if there is more to loading and unloading than just popping down the huge front hatch. It has raised a lot of funding, but we wonder if WindRunner will ever get off the ground. Stay tuned.

Source: Radia

Published October 2025

Rate this article