1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,279 Speaker 1: I you is companies building the world's largest airplane, called 2 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: the wind Runner to transport massive wind turbines. The catch well, 3 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:10,039 Speaker 1: that would never actually build an aircraft before, but they 4 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: say the demand for green energy makes it worth the risk. 5 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:17,479 Speaker 1: Mark Lundstrom is the aerospace engineer who founded Radio the 6 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,960 Speaker 1: company behind this, and is with me this morning. Good morning, 7 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:22,959 Speaker 1: all right, good morning, Mark, Great to have you on 8 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: the show. Can you just tell us how big? Give 9 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: us an idea of how big this bad boy is. 10 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 2: Sure, it's by far the world's largest aircraft. It's about 11 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:35,159 Speaker 2: twelve times the volume of a seven forty seven. It 12 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 2: has a cockpit that's about as all as a five 13 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 2: story building, and it's about eight times as big as 14 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:43,000 Speaker 2: the largest military aircraft flying today, the C five. 15 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: Okay, so massive? Why So? 16 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 2: It turns out that there's a lot of very large 17 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 2: payloads that need to be moved hard to reach places, 18 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 2: and so we originally started working on the wind Runner 19 00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 2: in order to move the world's biggest wind turbines to 20 00:00:59,280 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 2: onshore Lookeuate. 21 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: So the goal is. 22 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 2: To be able to move over a one hundred meter 23 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,039 Speaker 2: turbine blade and land it on a piece of dirt 24 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:09,480 Speaker 2: within the confines of a wind farm, and if you 25 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 2: can do that, you can reduce the cost wind energy 26 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,119 Speaker 2: by about a third. And then it turns out if 27 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 2: you can actually have the capability of moving gigantic things 28 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,840 Speaker 2: too hard to reach places, there's some fantastic humanitarian missions 29 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 2: that you can provide, and a lot of defense applications 30 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 2: you can provide, so you can basically put you can 31 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,480 Speaker 2: essentially move a six pack of F sixteen fighters or 32 00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 2: a six pack of Shinnock helicopters and land on a 33 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 2: piece of dirt as well. 34 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: Landing on the dirt sounds interesting. This is obviously going 35 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: to be very heavy if you've got one hundred meter 36 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: wind turbinal six jets in there. 37 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's actually the first time that an airplane 38 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 2: has been designed to optimize volume instead of mass. And 39 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 2: so it turns out that even though the airplane is 40 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 2: very big, it's not quite as heavy as you think 41 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 2: as you would think it would be. And it's so 42 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 2: big that we have the ability to put lots of 43 00:01:56,960 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 2: landing gear on it, and so that enables us to 44 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 2: have not that much poundage per wheel, and so we're 45 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 2: able to land on on just semi prepared dirt strips. 46 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: So it was seven times the volume of a seven 47 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: forty seven, did you say, and if that's the case, 48 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: how do you keep it flying? 49 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 2: So twelve times the volume of a seven forty seven, 50 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,639 Speaker 2: so it is gigantic, and you keep it flying by 51 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 2: just using standard aerospace techniques. You know, if you have 52 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,959 Speaker 2: if you have powerful enough jet engines, you can make 53 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 2: you can make a very large airplane fly. So what 54 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 2: the design team did at Radio is we basically have 55 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,360 Speaker 2: designed this airplane around the things that are already in 56 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 2: mass production and already flying. So making sure we reduce 57 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,320 Speaker 2: the technology risk by by designing the airplane around the 58 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:42,799 Speaker 2: things that are already flying. And it turns out that 59 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 2: there's some very powerful engines that can move a very 60 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:49,040 Speaker 2: large airplane today. And it's and that's because basically it's 61 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,079 Speaker 2: been it's been essentially thirty years since a large cargo 62 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 2: aircraft had been designed, and during those decades, engine technology 63 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 2: has improved massively, and so that enables us to move 64 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:03,520 Speaker 2: an airplane that's much much larger than the industry has 65 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 2: made for a long time. 66 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: Why are you doing this or how are you? How 67 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,080 Speaker 1: far through are you? Why your business and why aren't 68 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:14,960 Speaker 1: those ones who do large aircraft already attempting something like 69 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 1: this or are they? 70 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,359 Speaker 2: Yeah, So we are the company behind this, but we're 71 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 2: not the company that's exclusively building this. And so Radia 72 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 2: has built a supply chain that includes dozens of companies. 73 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:30,919 Speaker 2: The top aerospace manufacturing companies in the world are working 74 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 2: with us to pull this aircraft together because it's such 75 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 2: a unique vehicle and it's so exciting I think for 76 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 2: the supply chain to actually have an opportunity for the 77 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 2: aerospace industry to participate in helping solve climate change, and 78 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 2: so for an aeronautical solution to help move the needle 79 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 2: and climate change is very exciting for the company and 80 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 2: very exciting for the supply chain. But it is a 81 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 2: bit of a unique vehicle, and it's not something that's 82 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 2: sort of straight down the middle for a company that 83 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 2: usually makes passenger air craft or military aircraft. This is 84 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 2: something there's a market opportunity that is a small company. 85 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 2: We we identified that and then we inspired the supply 86 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:09,840 Speaker 2: chain to work with us to build it. 87 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: Give us a date mark, when will we see it 88 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:12,560 Speaker 1: in the skies. 89 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 2: You'll see in the skies by the end of the decade. 90 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 2: So it's no slow it's no it's no fast process 91 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 2: to design the world and build the world's largest aircraft. 92 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 2: But we've been at this for about eight years. We're 93 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 2: about ready to start manufacturing. The supply chain has all 94 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 2: been built, uh, and so we're we're we intend to 95 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 2: start providing service end of decade. 96 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:33,719 Speaker 1: Based in lock Scie, Flying Mark Lunstrom has the aerospace 97 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 1: Engineer at Radia. 98 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 2: For more Familily Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to 99 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,559 Speaker 2: news talks it be from five am weekdays, or follow 100 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.