The Radia Windrunner offers a cargo volume seven times larger than the mighty Antonov

[red750]

World's largest aircraft delivers colossal cargo to makeshift airstrips

NEWATLAS.COM

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The 108-m (356-ft) long Radia Windrunner is designed to transport cargo too big for the road, to short, semi-prepared airstrips on rough terrain. It would dwarf the majestic 84-m (275-ft) long Antonov...

 

[Marty_d]

Bit misleading - "delivers" implies that it is currently delivering, whereas "in the concept stage and may be flying in 5 years" should be described as "may deliver".

[turboplanner]

$104 million is not enough development money.

[facthunter]

Depends on how much new tech is in it. The Guppy's Airbus used to move big Bits of Plane around IN didn't require much development. Nev

[red750]

I edited the title - I had posted part of the article in the heading in error..

[Area-51]

Is it electric? Looks battery powered... has a sun emblem on the side; so must be solar powered...

[Marty_d]

17 hours ago, facthunter said:

Depends on how much new tech is in it. The Guppy's Airbus used to move big Bits of Plane around IN didn't require much development. Nev

The Airbus Beluga was based on an existing A300.  This looks like a completely new aircraft (there's certainly nothing in the world like it now) so you'd think there'd be a large amount of development work.

[facthunter]

The Concord used old tech. It flew OK despite the Yanks trying to shoot it down at every opportunity.. The Boeing SST metallurgy didn't pass muster .  Didn't go into production. What a plane actually looks like  especially with subsonic ones doesn't mean a lot. Nev

Edited March 27 by facthunter

[turboplanner]

This is not intended to fly supersonic, just beat the need for 20 man armies to meet road transport requirements, taking down power lines, putting them up again, just for one blade I know the payoad is ultralight but to me it doesn't look to have enough wing area.

 

However, it seems it's biggest obstacle will be the last six months or so with wind farms becoming a financial issue.

 

 

2023	Average failures per year 9.06 failures per turbine per year. (Anderson et al 2023)
8/9/23	Catastrophic outcome for the (UK) offshore wind sector; failed to deliver. (Guardian)
20/9/23	German wind turbines being torn down to make way for a coal mine, financed by RBC, Canada's biggest bank. (Canada’s National Observer)
12/1/24	Sweden's largest Wind Farm is facing bankruptcy; loss in last 3 years 220 million Euros. (Arctic Business Journal)
17/3/24	Swedish wind farms facing bankruptcy. (Brussels Signal)
20/3/24	Turbine Troubles have sent wind energy stocks tumbling. (CNBC Canada)
27/3/24	Australia's third offshore wind zone shrinks 4/5 to avoid rock lobsters. (Renew Economy)   And this one showing the academics have lost a third of their superannuation savings, which many people would consider fitting.
21/3/24	Unisuper Global Environmental Opportunities Fund with assets of $2.5 bn. Has lost $700 million, or one third of its value, largely on the back of weakness in the EV market. The industry super fund giant primarily looks after the savings of the nation’s academics, scientists and researchers and opened to the public three years ago. (The Australian)

[Marty_d]

There's a climate change thread over in Social Australia where denialists can have their say.

[kgwilson]

I note that Malcolm Turnbull is one of Radias advisors. Wind energy capture is by far the cheapest of any form of renewable energy and the huge number of installations and turbines far outweigh a few failures here and there are more than 341,000 wind turbines installed around the globe with over 900 GW produced in 2022.

[kgwilson]

It is a pretty simple looking aircraft. It is just a huge tube which won't be pressurised with a straight wing and 2 tip mounted vertical stabilisers. The only pressurised part will be the cockpit. 4 standard engines off something like an A320 and a 72 tonne payload means it doesn't need all the wheels of the Antonov with only 4 x 4 wheel main bogeys & 2 x 2 wheel steerables up front. It's a modern day Bristol freighter on steroids.