There’s a global energy crisis and onshore wind farms are a potential growth option. Larger wind turbines produce more power than standard ones, but the components are too big to be transported by road.
What’s the solution? A Colorado-based energy startup named Radia has an idea. It’s developing the biggest aircraft in aviation history.
Meet the WindRunner airplane, whose mission will be to deliver gigantic 300-foot-long blades directly to wind farms.
To help the world meet its decarbonization targets, it’ll use sustainable aviation fuel and needs only a simple packed-dirt or gravel runway to land on.
It’ll operate from regional hubs, says Radia, delivering where needed – and “can land on airstrips as short as 6,000 feet (1,800 meters), something no other large commercial aircraft can achieve.”
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When it comes to carrying the largest payloads ever moved by air, dainty just isn’t going to cut it.
So WindRunner will have a cargo bay volume of 272,000 cubic feet, enough to hold three Olympic swimming pools. That’s 12 times the volume of a Boeing 747-400 and – at 356 feet in length, it’s 127 feet longer too.
As for the wingspan, that’s 261 feet – imagine four bowling lanes laid end to end.
Continue here: CNN
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