The Pufferfish of the sky

By Jo Nova

This tells us everything we need to know about modern Western civilization. A blimp with wings.

These pufferfish of the sky could be the ugliest, most absurd planes to take to the troposphere.

They are emblematic of the era we live in. Wind turbines destined to rot in the ocean are so big now they can’t even fit on a truck, so someone is planning a plane specially for them. It will be 100 feet longer than a Jumbo jet but carry no tourists, except the fibreglass kind that torment whales, deafen porpoises and vandalize fine electricity grids. The whole point of these machines is a quest to appease the weather Gods one hundred years from now.

Presumably these will run on fairy dust or fermented tofu.

The Flying white elephants could “hit the sky” in four years

To be clear, all that was announced two weeks ago was that Radia has “plans” to make these aircraft and wants $300 million dollars. Presumably the photos here were made by ChatGPT or equivalent.

Radia’s WindRunner to be the world’s largest aircraft ever built

by Rizwan Choudry, Interesting Engineering

The WindRunner’s colossal dimensions dwarf even the most iconic commercial aircraft. Measuring an astounding 356 feet long, with a height of 79 feet and a wingspan of 261 feet, it outstrips the Boeing 747-8’s length by 106 feet. To put things in perspective, the Windrunner is almost as long as an NFL football field. Its exceptional size translates to a vast carrying capacity of up to 80 tons – twelve times that of the Boeing 747.

Correction: The Business Insider says:

Radia’s plane has a cargo bay volume of 272,000 cubic feet — 12 times that of a Boeing 747-400F …

Let’s not forget the sole aim and purpose of the plane, the factories that make it, and the entire load it carries is to reduce human fossil fuel use.

 

According to Olivia Murray of American Thinker, it will supposedly run on renewable fuel:

 Radia promises that this plane will run on “sustainable aviation fuel” instead of traditional jet fuel—but what is SAF exactly? Well, SAF is just a type of “biofuel” that has apparently met certain criteria to be legally-labeled as “sustainable.” So, just as long as you ignore all the cleared forests and prairies to make way for the taxpayer-subsidized corn and soy enterprises to grow the product to make the “fuel,” and you ignore the devastation caused by corporate (mono)agriculture, then maybe you can delude yourself into believing this is a more environmentally-friendly option.

SAF is “sustainable” in the same way that wind turbines are sustainable—you have to ignore the impact on migratory birds, the petroleum-based resins used to manufacture the fiberglass blades, the toxic refrigerants in the turbine house, the petroleum-based lubricants for the machinery, etc., if you’re to believe the lie.

They could always run it on solar power and electric batteries if they don’t mind replacing the battery every three weeks (or maybe every time it flies).

The plane will apparently need  6,000 foot runways to take off and land.

Radia hope that onshore turbines will also be delivered to far flung and remote sites where it is hard to deliver wind turbine parts now. (Since those sites are often mountainous and lacking in long international airport runways, who knows, perhaps the blades can be air-dropped?)

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal says they will have to build a new dirt runway for each project.

Having waited seven years to reveal their plans they may have missed the renewable bubble by six months. Bad luck eh?

Investors are fleeing after Siemens discovered that instead of being more efficient, the bigger blades were a maintenance nightmare. Even insurance companies are balking at paying for all the cable breaks.

h/t Bally