Radia is developing the WindRunner, the world’s largest aircraft, specifically designed to transport massive offshore wind turbine blades—some reaching the length of football fields—to onshore sites. This capability, termed "GigaWind," could redefine the scope and scale of onshore wind projects. Radia isn’t stopping at building these groundbreaking aircraft; they also plan to develop wind energy projects to catalyze the GigaWind transformation.

This episode dives into Radia’s verticalized approach to addressing a major challenge in wind energy: the physical limitations of transporting turbine blades via the U.S. interstate highway system. By circumventing these constraints, Radia envisions a future where wind farms can reach unprecedented scales.

Three aerospace leaders – Aernnova, Leonardo and AFuzion – will partner with Radia on WindRunner™, the world’s largest aircraft. Radia is developing WindRunner to deliver the largest, most efficient wind turbine blades, expand the reach of wind energy and transform its economics, enabling the world to meet its climate goals. The companies are joining Radia’s innovation ecosystem and will be available to discuss the partnerships at the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow.

Radia has announced its first supplier partners on development of the WindRunner, planned to be the world’s largest aircraft and designed to fly giant wind turbine blades directly to onshore wind farms. “As a veteran of the wind turbine industry, I can attest to the urgent need for the solution that WindRunner represents,” says Aernnova CEO Ricardo Chocarro, who was previously CEO of onshore business for Spanish-German wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa. “The WindRunner initiative is an interesting example of how the aerospace industry continues to provide a key contribution to sustainability,” says Stefano Bortoli, managing director of Leonardo’s aerostructures division. Read more in Aviation Week's exclusive story on Radia's newly announced partners Aernnova, Leonardo and AFuzion.

Mark Lundstrom is the CEO and founder of Radia. In this episode of World Economic Forum's Meet the Leader podcast, he explains to host Linda Lacina why he's building the world's largest plane – and how that can speed progress on tackling emissions. He also shares why this company is focused on using just existing technologies, and why this approach can lead to a host of new solutions for innovators and tackle big challenges more quickly.

Ask people what they think of when they hear the words “flying” and “climate” and their answers are likely to involve negative environmental impacts. Mark Lundstrom is working to rewrite this narrative, as the founder and CEO of Radia, a company building the world’s biggest aeroplane. In a recent episode of the World Economic Forum’s Meet the Leader podcast, Lundstrom talked to Linda Lacina about the development of this ambitious craft and turbines, and the drivers behind his work in the clean energy space. Here are some key messages from the conversation.

Unlocking potential to build the biggest turbines on land will ‘roughly triple’ global area in which wind is economically viable. Onshore wind is crucial to helping the world decarbonise but has long been limited by the problem that the biggest turbine blades are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to deliver by land. WindRunner™ will be able to fly a turbine blade up to 105 metres – as long as a football pitch – to a wind farm.

Wind energy’s CO2e emissions impact is mostly frontloaded and unrelated to the turbine’s energy generation. While transportation has a small impact compared to the contribution of manufacturing and raw materials (which contribute up to 90% of CO2e emissions associated with wind energy), GigaWind™ – Radia’s term for the largest onshore wind turbines of today and the even larger ones of tomorrow – ultimately mitigates the impact of all by maximizing green wind energy output at lower cost and higher efficiency. WindRunner™ itself is designed to operate with the smallest possible impact on CO2e emissions. Take a deeper look at how WindRunner and GigaWind have a net positive impact, both in the short term and in the complete lifecycle of a GigaWind energy project.

When it takes to the skies, the Radia WindRunner™ will be the world’s largest cargo plane. As fascinating as it is, what’s most interesting about Radia to me isn’t the aircraft itself. Indeed, founder and CEO Mark Lundstrom told me over coffee that he directed the company’s engineers to follow the mantra of “do nothing new.” The plane is built using existing technologies to ease the engineering and subsequent certification process. Radia will be an energy company, building clean energy projects, says Lundstrom. And those wind projects are only the cornerstone in Lundstrom’s vision of a much bigger energy company. Read more from TIME's Justin Worland.

Manufacturers of today’s and tomorrow’s largest onshore turbines – what Radia calls GigaWind™ – face a colossal challenge when it comes to deployment. Due to GigaWind’s enormous size – particularly its blades – manufacturers find it practically impossible to transport these blades on the ground. The three most obvious solutions currently available to get around this challenge are segmented blades, manufacturing blades onsite and aerial transport, but the only solution that will work for GigaWind is Radia’s purpose-built aerial transport solution, the WindRunner™ – the world’s largest aircraft.