Whatever the WindRunner lacks in payload weight
it makes up for in sheer internal space. Its 272,000-
ft.3 payload bay capacity offers about seven times the
interior volume of the Antonov An-124 and eight times
that of the Lockheed Martin C-5M. The WindRunner
also offers unusual operational flexibility for its size; its
design seeks to meet the wind energy industry’s need
to deliver turbine blades to remote sites on land with
unpaved runways.
One WindRunner, therefore, could carry six flightworthy
Boeing CH-47 Chinooks, or about half the
number that populates each of the Army’s General
Support Aviation Battalions. Alternatively, the aircraft
could haul a load of six Lockheed Martin F-16s.
Because of the low-density-payload limit, however, the
Wind Runner could carry only a single M1 Abrams
tank—the same capacity as the C-17.
Radia’s leadership team—which added as an advisor
U.S. Air Force Gen. (ret.) Mike Minihan, leader of Air
Mobility Command in 2021-24—is trying to adapt its
business model to the U.S. military, CEO Mark Lundstrom
told Aviation Week at the Paris Air Show in June.
The company takes a relatively rigid approach to
building aircraft for the commercial market. Radia
has no plans to sell WindRunners to commercial
operators. Instead, it plans to operate a fleet of the
aircraft, providing airlift capacity as a service to the
wind energy industry.