Very large plane to transport wind turbine blades

Wind turbines are getting bigger every day, and their blades already exceed 100 meters in length, so their transportation becomes more difficult every day.

As an example, the SG 14–222 DD turbine from Siemens Gamesa has 108 meter long blades, and has managed to generate a power of 359 MWh. in 24 hours, and 30 units of them would be capable of supplying electricity to a medium-sized city like Bilbao with close to a million inhabitants.

And one of the problems that this type of turbines have is the length of their blades and the transportation from the factory to their installation site, since blades of more than 100 meters in length are very poorly transported by road.

And like every time a “problem” appears someone comes up with a solution, in this case someone has thought of designing an extra-large plane specialized in transporting wind turbine blades of up to 105 m. of length.

The company is called Radia and they have called the plane WindRunner. You can see some photos below.

This plane is being designed, and if it flies in a few years it will be the longest in the world.

Its design data is huge:

• Wingspan: 117 meters, similar to that of a Boeing 747–8, but with a wider and more robust fuselage.
• Length: 108.5 meters, comparable to that of a football field.
• Height: 24 meters, equivalent to an eight-story building.
• Load capacity: 80 tons, which allows transporting up to two 100-meter-long wind blades.
• Cargo warehouse: An open space 105 meters long, 8 meters wide and 6 meters high, specially designed to accommodate wind blades.
• Engines: Four high-performance turbofan engines, which give it a cruising speed of 740 kilometers per hour.
• Autonomy: 2,000 kilometers, enough to cover long distances and reach remote areas.
• Landing strip: It can land on runways that are only 1,800 meters long, making it easier to access places with limited infrastructure.

Although the company has already received more than 100 million dollars in financing for its project, it is not clear that it will be successful, since the plane is still several years away from being certified and they need much more money to fly it. And the market niche they have is very narrow.

A video can be seen at: https://youtu.be/XMkCKgr59d8

An alternative to shipping large wings is transporting them by sea, which could have much lower costs.

I wish the best to Radia’s friends.