It’s Skytanic!Plans revealed for world’s largest airplane – total length will be a whopping 356 feet

technology

by ben cost

that SkyTanic.

Engineers have announced plans for the world’s largest airplane, dubbed the Windrunner, that could revolutionize renewable energy by transporting giant wind turbine blades from point A to point B.

Designed by Colorado-based energy company Radia, this massive cargo carrier measures an impressive 356 feet long, 79 feet tall, and has a wingspan of 261 feet.

For reference, this castle in the sky is about the same length as a regulation NFL football field and 127 feet longer than the world’s largest passenger plane, a Boeing 747.

It has a potential payload of 80 tonnes, 12 times more than the latter aircraft.

A 6,000-foot runway would also need to be built to accommodate jumbo jets.

WindRunner’s purpose is to fly the blades of onshore wind turbines, which are 150 to 300 feet long and weigh 35 tons, to various wind farms.

Due to their enormous size and unwieldyness, these unusually large fan blades currently have to be transported offshore using specialized vessels, limiting their use on land.

“Today’s largest wind turbines, and even larger wind turbines in the future, cannot be transported via ground infrastructure to major onshore wind farms,” ​​Radia wrote on its website.

This challenge initially inspired Radia employees to take on this massive initiative.

“It was a very obvious moment when the industry spoke to you,” said Mark Lundstrom, a rocket scientist trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who founded the company, while talking about how he first learned about the limits. ” he told the Wall Street Journal.

He has spent the past seven years working with an engineering team to perfect the design so the Windrunner won’t fall apart when the rubber hits the runway.

In addition to incorporating existing wind turbine rotors, WindRunner’s capabilities also pave the way for the development of even larger ground-based turbines that can generate even more power.

In fact, experts estimate that larger air covers could improve the consistency of power generation by 20% compared to today’s land-based turbines. You can also reduce your energy costs by up to 35%.

This is an important development considering that in 2022, 10% of large-scale electricity generation in the United States will come from wind.

Radia, who has kept Windrunner a secret for years, claims these gigantic Blade Runners could become a reality within just four years.

In addition to revolutionizing the wind power sector, Lundström believes the plane’s huge cargo capacity could be used for other purposes, including transporting large military machines.

The news comes as economic headwinds plague the offshore wind industry. Last year, Danish wind power giant Ørsted scrapped plans for two wind farms off the coast of New Jersey, after projects in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts collapsed.

The wind power crisis is believed to be caused by inflation, rising interest rates that drive up the cost of capital, and severe distortions in the supply chain.

Similar problems are plaguing proposed offshore wind projects in New York as developers make final decisions on whether to start building turbines or cut losses before they get worse.