Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Podcast

Why a Climate Startup Is Building the World’s Biggest Airplane

Inside episode nine of Shift Key.

A Radia Windrunner.
Heatmap Illustration/Radia

Radia is a $1 billion climate tech startup with an unusual pitch: It is trying to build the world’s largest airplane. Its proposed aircraft, the Radia Wind Runner, would be as long as a football field, nearly as wide as a New York city block, and capable of carrying 12 times the volume of a Boeing 747. Such a plane could ferry massive wind-turbine blades, unlocking what the company calls “gigawind” — the ability to build offshore-sized wind turbines on land.

Why is that important? Because the larger the wind turbine, the more electricity that it generates — and the less wind it needs to work with. Radia says that its “gigawind” farms could profitably go into places with slower wind speeds, such as the Northeast or Mississippi Delta. They could also be built in the existing Wind Belt, potentially doubling current output.

In this week’s episode, Rob and Jesse talk to Radia’s chief executive officer, Mark Lundstrom. (Jesse’s consulting firm did some research for Radia while it was in stealth mode, in 2020 and 2023.) We discuss why the world needs a bigger plane, how such a new aircraft gets licensed, and why massive wind turbines could be such a big deal for renewable electricity. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton professor of energy systems engineering.

Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly.

Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Jesse Jenkins: I’m here in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at Princeton, so we’ve got a lot of students excited about new aerospace applications. I have a six-year-old kid, as well, and he’s also excited about anything that goes fast and is big, so I’m sure he’ll get excited about the eventual Lego kit for the WindRunner that we’ll have to get out in the world. But talk through the size of this aircraft compared to, say, something we’re used to, like a 737 or more conventional aircraft.

Mark Lundstrom: Sure. So before understanding the size, one has to understand the fundamental mission requirements. And so the goal, Radia’s goal is to be able to move up to a 105 meter long object that could weigh up to 75 tons. Now we can also move multiple smaller blades, so two 95s, or three 85s, or four 75s. So the vehicle is quite versatile.

In terms of sheer size, it’s about 12 times the volume of a 747. So it’s very, very large compared to the 747. It’s about nine times the volume of the Antonovs. And yet what's very different about it —

Jenkins: And the Antonov, that’s the largest plane built to date, right?

Lundstrom: Yes, the largest volumetric plane right now. There’s about 14 or 15 of them left in the world, usually Russian or Ukrainian operated.

Robinson Meyer: I was going to say, I remember the biggest plane in the world being destroyed right at the beginning of the Ukraine War and was wondering how that compared to the to the WindRunner vehicle.

Lundstrom: So the Antonov 225, there was one of them. WindRunner is six times bigger in volume than that airplane was, and it’s nine times bigger in volume than the remaining Antonov 124s that are still out there. And so, and what’s additionally unusual about it, in addition to the size, is its ability to land on dirt.

Meyer: Wow.

Lundstrom: Things like Antonovs, 747s, etc., they need to land on about 9,000 feet of steel reinforced concrete, typically. And we designed the WindRunners so we could land on relatively short dirt strips, so just over a mile of a semi-prepared field. And that allows us to bring the payload into a wind farm, and be able to get a very large aircraft out of the wind farm. It’s probably the first time that an aircraft has been designed to optimize around volume, as opposed to mass.

Usually when an aircraft design team starts off, they’ll start off thinking about how much mass has to be moved. We really started off thinking about how much volume has to be moved. So there are aircraft that move larger mass than the WindRunner. There’s absolutely no aircraft that comes close to moving larger volumes and being able to land that volume on a relatively short dirt strip.

This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by…

Advanced Energy United educates, engages, and advocates for policies that allow our member companies to compete to power our economy with 100% clean energy, working with decision makers and energy market regulators to achieve this goal. Together, we are united in our mission to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy in America. Learn more at advancedenergyunited.org/heatmap

KORE Power provides the commercial, industrial, and utility markets with functional solutions that advance the clean energy transition worldwide. KORE Power's technology and manufacturing capabilities provide direct access to next generation battery cells, energy storage systems that scale to grid+, EV power & infrastructure, and intuitive asset management to unlock energy strategies across a myriad of applications. Explore more at korepower.com.

Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Yellow

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Politics

Here Are the Grants EPA Canceled

The agency provided a list to the Sierra Club, which in turn provided the list to Heatmap.

Lee Zeldin.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency remain closed-lipped about which grants they’ve canceled. Earlier this week, however, the office provided a written list to the Sierra Club in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, which begins to shed light on some of the agency’s actions.

The document shows 49 individual grants that were either “canceled” or prevented from being awarded from January 20 through March 7, which is the day the public information office conducted its search in response to the FOIA request. The grants’ total cumulative value is more than $230 million, although some $30 million appears to have already been paid out to recipients.

Keep reading...Show less
Energy

The New Campaign to Save Renewables: Lower Electricity Bills

Defenders of the Inflation Reduction Act have hit on what they hope will be a persuasive argument for why it should stay.

A leaf and a quarter.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

With the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act and its tax credits for building and producing clean energy hanging in the balance, the law’s supporters have increasingly turned to dollars-and-cents arguments in favor of its preservation. Since the election, industry and research groups have put out a handful of reports making the broad argument that in addition to higher greenhouse gas emissions, taking away these tax credits would mean higher electricity bills.

The American Clean Power Association put out a report in December, authored by the consulting firm ICF, arguing that “energy tax credits will drive $1.9 trillion in growth, creating 13.7 million jobs and delivering 4x return on investment.”

Keep reading...Show less
Green
Politics

AM Briefing: A Letter from EPA Staff

On environmental justice grants, melting glaciers, and Amazon’s carbon credits

EPA Workers Wrote an Anonymous Letter to America
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Severe thunderstorms are expected across the Mississippi Valley this weekend • Storm Martinho pushed Portugal’s wind power generation to “historic maximums” • It’s 62 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, and very quiet at Heathrow Airport outside London, where a large fire at an electricity substation forced the international travel hub to close.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump issues executive order to expand critical mineral output

President Trump invoked emergency powers Thursday to expand production of critical minerals and reduce the nation’s reliance on other countries. The executive order relies on the Defense Production Act, which “grants the president powers to ensure the nation’s defense by expanding and expediting the supply of materials and services from the domestic industrial base.”

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow