The challenges of the company that is building the largest plane in the world (and why they want to use it)

Currently, the Boulder -based company, Colorado, has raised more than US $ 150 million and attracted high profile advisors to launch a possible solution: the Windrunner.

The largest history in history is designed to make the transport of the huge blades of wind turbines much easier and – according to Radia – trigger a revolution in earthly wind energy.

“We are building the largest aircraft in the world and we are doing it because there is a gigantic gap in the capacity of heavy load aircraft,” says Lundstrom, the executive director and founder of the company.

“I am surprised that there are no plans or production of large -cargo aircraft that can meet this need, with the exception of the radia Windrunner,” he says and adds:

“It is the inability to move big things that is basically the obstacle that prevents us from enlarging wind turbines on land.”

But there is an additional challenge. This huge aircraft should be able to navigate the landing clues of existing airports, as well as maneuvering in the types of relatively short and semi -signs that can be easily built near the wind farms.

(Semipreated tracks are those in which the land has been clear and level to allow operations, but have not been completely paved).

These extragraduate giants have a precedent. The huge load aircraft of six engines in Ukraine, the Antonov AN-225 Mriya (“Dream”, in Ukrainian), used to be the largest aircraft in the world. His load warehouse was longer than the distance that covered the first flight of the Wright brothers, from takeoff to landing.

But it was the only one of its kind that became completed.

His destruction during the early stages of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a symbolic blow to Ukraine, and a literal for the world of world aviation. Overnight, the ability to transport large loads of extreme dimensions was lost, whether they were whole locomotives, wind turbine blades or humanitarian aid.

Moreover, the once rivals of the AN-225 in the category of strategic airborne, such as the Boeing C-17 GlobeMaster, the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and the Antonov An-124 Ruslan are all out of production, aging and, particularly in the case of Antonov, less available due to the war in Ukraine.

When Radia contemplated this new project, there was only one problem: I had never built a plane before.

Lundstrom gathered a team of experts to design their specifications before you were unveiled at the Farnborough International Air Fair, England, in 2024. One of the solutions that the team considered was an airship, but decided on a huge fixed -wing plane.

“We analyzed all possible ways to move large components,” says Lundstrom- and decided that the best way was a fixed -wing plane, designed around aerospace parts, many of which are already produced massively today. “

The most distinctive feature of this colossal fixed -wing aircraft is its huge straight wing, necessary to take off and land on a relatively short and semi -signing track.

Once built, its huge load elevator will measure 108 meters long with an increase of 80 meters, characteristics derived from the need to assemble its load in a modern airport, and will have a vast loading warehouse about six times greater than that of Antonov AN-225.

It will have the highest cross section of all heavy load planes built to date and can transport three 80 m wind turbine blades, two of 95 mo one of 105 m, and land on an unpaved track of 1,800 m.

However, you can only lift 74 tons of weight and travel about 2,000 km. This means that Windrunner, if built, will probably be limited to flights within North America, Europe or South America.

“Yes, there are many challenges,” says Lundstrom. “But the fundamental principles of the development of the Windrunner are: do not do anything new and develop the minimally viable aircraft for the mission.”

This means that there will be no new regulations, supply chains or hangars worldwide. “Unfortunately, this rules out the airships,” says Lundstrom.

To make this vision come true, Lundstrom and his team have hired experienced suppliers, such as the Italian Leonardo for fuselage, the Spanish Aernnova for the pylons of the wings and the engines, and the American Affection to supervise the safety characteristics.

However, the lack of a designated engines has generated doubts about the viability of the project. A Radia spokesman told the BBC that this should not be a problem for a long time.

“We have selected an existing certified engine and we have been working to define the integration strategy in the fuselage. We will announce the motor partner soon,” he said.

“We hope that the development will be profitable thanks to Radia's emphasis on reusing as much as possible of existing systems, components and technologies. The unit cost will be proportional to the weight and size of the aircraft and, therefore, comparable to that of other civil aircraft of wide fuselage,” he added.

The aerospace industry has had visionaries in the past that, in the same way, wanted to build the heavy plane ever built, or the largest ever flown. Like them, they have only built, at most, one or two units of these huge machines.

Naturally, some observers are cautious about the perspectives of the Windrunner. “I just don't see how you will work unless you get more capital investment,” says Aviation author and commentator Chris Pocock.

“The Windrunner has no transatlantic scope, so, from that point of view, it is not as attractive as a large cargo aircraft carrier,” he adds.

Pocock also believes that Radia dismissed the airships too easily as a solution. “Hybrid airship designers have their eyes on the same market,” he says.

“The two most credible mixture designs are currently not designed to transport load of this size, but both could be expanded.”

It may simply interfere with policy. The US president, Donald Trump, has described the “garbage” wind energy and has signed an executive order against its expansion. But the advantages of terrestrial wind energy, added to the need for energy security, could justify its commercial use in the United States.

In May 2025, the US Department of Defense signed an agreement with Radia to study how Windrunner could transport military charge. This seemed to suppose a change of course. However, a Radia spokesman declared the BBC that it is not:

“The main mission of Radia remains to serve the land wind energy market … but the unique capabilities of the Windrunner imply many additional applications, including defense.”

In an email to the BBC, Radia said that his last financing round had an excess of supply and that they are now working with governments and investors in an upcoming more important and larger capital injection.

However, until now, Radia has only tried a very small size windrunner model in a wind tunnel. Like other aviation manufacturers and startups, Radia seems interested in streamlining and reducing the cost of the long and expensive process to certify Windrunner security.

To achieve this, together with the use of certified components, they do not plan to build a traditional prototype. On the other hand, the use of digital design tools should allow the company's next step to be the construction of several real -size test aircraft, whose first flight is scheduled for the end of the decade, and then enter directly into production. However, certification is an overwhelming process for any aircraft manufacturer, and even more for a new one.

“I spent a lot of time working with an old company startup,” says Aviation analyst and commentator Bill Sweetman. “There was a solid commercial argument, a lower technological risk (which in the case of Windrunner), a much lower scale and a simpler production, but it was still difficult to achieve certification.”

The news that Boeing is found in the early stages of negotiations to restart the production of its rival, the C-17, does nothing but increase the pressure on Windrunner, even if, as a radia spokesman explains to the BBC in an email, there is sufficient accumulated demand for both airplanes, and the Windrunner should be flying before it leaves the production line any new C-17.

Subscribe here To our new newsletter to receive every Friday a selection of our best content of the week.

And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and act.