A US startup wants to build a giant military cargo plane that can fit 4 F-35 stealth fighters inside

• A Colorado-based startup is touting a large new cargo plane as an airlift option for the Pentagon.

• The Windrunner is meant to simply carry 4 fashionable fighter jets or six Chinooks.

• While it is only launched renderings, Radia beforehand announced an R&D partnership with the Pentagon.

A late-stage startup building the world’s largest plane — initially for shifting giant wind turbine blades — now wants its plane to ferry Chinooks and fighter jets for the US military.

The Windrunner is supposed to offer 12 occasions the cargo space of Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III, the Pentagon’s major heavy-lift provider, according to Radia, its maker based in Boulder, Colorado.

The company said in a press release on Friday that it was proposing its product as an “ultra-large air cargo aircraft” for shifting weapons platforms and transports. It initially constructed the Windrunner to airlift wind turbine fan blades as long as 330 toes.

With a wingspan of 261 toes and a size of 356 toes, the Windrunner is meant to carry payloads as long as 344 toes, as extensive as 33 toes, and as tall as almost 30 toes.

That would make Radia’s plane bigger than the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the Soviet Union’s sole gargantuan cargo plane with six engines. The An-22 held the document as the world’s largest plane, but was destroyed during a battle in Ukraine in April 2022.

Radia lists the Windrunner’s payload weight as roughly 160,000 kilos, which is less than the smaller C-17’s 170,900 kilos.

But the firm wrote in its press release that it is attempting to remedy the issue of cargo quantity for the military.

“Modern joint capabilities frequently run out of space before they run out of lift,” Radia wrote.

The company said the Windrunner’s measurement would permit it to carry up to 4 fighter jets, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon or the F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

Alternatively, the Windrunner is meant to carry six CH-47 Chinooks without disassembling any of the 98-foot-long transports. Currently, these 18-foot-tall helicopters need to have their rotors eliminated to be transported by air, or they might be too tall to fit in the US military’s C-5 Super Galaxy and C-17.

At its most payload, the Windrunner is supposed to fly at a vary of 1,200 miles, which is just under the F-35C’s 1,350 miles. The C-17, meanwhile, has a full payload vary of about 2,760 miles.

Radia also wants the Windrunner to take off and land on unpaved runways as short as 6,000 toes. Today’s bigger military cargo planes sometimes need about 8,000 toes to hit the skies comfortably at max payload.

The firm seems to have only launched renderings of the Windrunner, and it is unclear if it is constructed the plane or any prototypes. Radia’s press group didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched exterior common business hours by Business Insider.

However, Radia announced a research partnership with the US Transportation Command in May, indicating that the Defense Department is finding out the plane more intently to decide whether or not it could possibly be possible for the military.

Radia’s founder and CEO, Mark Lundstrom, told BreakingDefense that the company wants the Windrunner to start “initial operations” by 2030. To facilitate certification, it intends to build it with already current, ready-to-install plane elements.

The company’s protection lead, Kenneth Bibb, is a retired US Air Force major normal who oversaw Air Mobility Command from 2020 to 2022, the airlifting power accountable for the Pentagon’s evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021.

The startup has raised $130 million, according to personal market analytics firm PitchBook.

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