Amid a massively ambitious project to build the world’s largest fixed-wing aircraft – designed to fly wind turbines directly to wind farms – US energy firm Radia maintains it is taking a straightforward approach to developing its conceptual Windrunner platform.
Rachel Kelley, Radia’s vice-president of aircraft development and engineering, tells FlightGlobal on 22 July that the programme is focused on minimising development risk.
”What’s the simplest solution to safely accomplish the mission? We’ve taken the strategy to do no technology development; we’re using existing tech,” she says. ”You can look around and see similar architectures that are flying all over the world… We’re doing the right things to make it a simple aircraft development.”
To that end, Radia is meeting with potential suppliers at Farnborough to help develop Windrunner. With an envisioned nose-to-tail length of 108m (356ft), the conceptual four-engined aircraft is designed to have 12 times the cargo volume of a Boeing 747 and to transport a maximum payload of 72,575kg (160,000lb).
Windrunner’s range with a maximum payload is estimated to be 1,080nm (2,000km).
Radia also identified three suppliers ahead of the show – Italian aerospace manufacturer Leonardo will develop the fuselage, Spain’s Aernnova will supply wings and engine pylons, and AFuzion of Southern California will advise on safety and certification.
Kelley declines to identify the engine maker it intends to partner with but says Radia will opt for an “off-the-shelf” engine already in operation. Suppliers are excited by the potential to contribute to such a large-scale project, Kelley says.
Windrunner will be purpose-built to accommodate future wind turbine blades of up to 105m long, which are difficult to transport with ground vehicles. Radia envisions bypassing ground transportation altogether, with the jet taking off from regional hubs and landing on “semi-prepared” runways of packed dirt.
The company claims Windrunner will require runways only 1,800m (6,000ft) long thanks to a “huge, straight wing” designed for relatively short take-off and landing.
”It’s all about being able to transport these large turbine blades all over the world,” Kelley says. ”Today there is simply an infrastucture problem – you can’t get them from A to B because of literal roadblocks. You can’t get around turns or under bridges or around roundabouts.”
“The best blades today aren’t the best-selling because you cannot get them to most locations,” she adds.
Radia has been quietly developing Windrunner for about six years, Kelley says, and only recently announced its intentions to the world. It envisions eventually building a ”global fleet” comprising dozens of Windrunner jets.
Radia has already wind-tunnel tested a very small-scale prototype and does not anticipate developing a larger prototype. Rather, it next plans to build several full-scale test aircraft that will eventually enter service.
“We’re going directly to the production configuration and taking it through the flight-test programme,” Kelley says.
Radia intends for Windrunner to enter service this decade, flying exclusively on its own behalf; it has no plans to sell the jet to cargo operators.
