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Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

cnn.com

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Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#31

Post by perilunar »

jmvoodoo wrote: post #23
scott00 wrote: post #4

Doesn't make intuitive sense to me why you'd need a whole new airplane for this. Can you not rig something up to let one of these blades ride on top of an existing plane like the space shuttle transporter? Or would Sergey Brin's giant dirigible work? Or two helicopters flying in formation? Or just make the blades come in two pieces assembled on site? Just seems very hard to believe a project as massive as a whole new…

I actually know someone at radia and asked them this exact question last year. Apparently the blades are also extremely fragile and couldn't withstand the forces of being mounted on an aircraft. The problem with lighter than air is that the wind farms tend to be in places with, well, a lot of wind. Not ideal places for lighter than air vehicles. Helicopters just aren't efficient enough, would have the same issues wit…

> The problem with lighter than air is that the wind farms tend to be in places with, well, a lot of wind.

On the other hand, an airship doubles as a crane, so there would be no need to truck it from the airfield and then crane it into place. You can deliver it directly to the rotor hub.

Countering the wind with computer-controlled thrusters would seem to be the way to go. Also, there is a large tower already there that you could use as a stabilising mast.

Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#32

Post by sio8ohPi »

sonofhans wrote: post #16
scott00 wrote: post #4

Doesn't make intuitive sense to me why you'd need a whole new airplane for this. Can you not rig something up to let one of these blades ride on top of an existing plane like the space shuttle transporter? Or would Sergey Brin's giant dirigible work? Or two helicopters flying in formation? Or just make the blades come in two pieces assembled on site? Just seems very hard to believe a project as massive as a whole new…

For one thing, a 747 is only 250 feet long. So a 300-foot blade on top would trail significantly. For another, the shuttle piggyback worked partly because of the shuttle’s aerodynamic profile. It’s designed to go straight forward into the wind. This means the 747 still handled well. A windmill blade, though, would present a very different cross section to the oncoming air, and seriously screw up the host’s aerodynami…

External transport of wings has been done:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/wreq34/antonov_an...

Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#33

Post by superb_dev »

sio8ohPi wrote: post #32
sonofhans wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For one thing, a 747 is only 250 feet long. So a 300-foot blade on top would trail significantly. For another, the shuttle piggyback worked partly because of the shuttle’s aerodynamic profile. It’s designed to go straight forward into the wind. This means the 747 still handled well. A windmill blade, though, would present a very different cross section to the oncoming air, and seriously screw up the host’s aerodynami…

External transport of wings has been done: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/wreq34/antonov_an...

That is much smaller and straighter compared to modern turbine blades

Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#34

Post by MadnessASAP »

sonofhans wrote: post #28
MadnessASAP wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Boeing Dreamlifter is literally that. There's also the Airbus BelugaXL. Taking big cargo aircraft and putting bigger cargo fairings on it has been going on since the 60s. None are capable of a 300' length, but they're also not far off. I'm not sure what Radias gameplan here is but I'm extremely doubtful they'll be able to spin up a bespoke airframe for this one market before Boeing/Airbus have built a FeverDreaml…

So I’m no expert, but I’m not sure I agree. For one thing, a Dreamlifter is 235 feet long. They’d have to add nearly 100 feet to that before it fit a 300-foot blade. I think that makes it a completely different airplane. Also I wonder about density — turbine blades are really light, and this Radias seems not to have a huge wingspan. Perhaps it’s optimized specifically for long, low-density cargo. That’s not the marke…

I would love to deliver a TED talk on the costs and issues with developing new airframes vs adapting existing ones to new roles.

However I'll leave you with an analogy. If you were in the business of delivering mattresses, would you rather have a GMC cube van that is perhaps not aerodynamically optimal and has a weight capacity that exceeds your requirements but has parts available around the world and every mechanic and driver has seen before. Or would you rather develop a custom mattress delivery vehicle that no one knows what to do with, doesn't fit in normal parking lots and can only be maintained and driven by your own specially trained team of mattress delivery vehicle specialists. How many mattresses do you have to deliver in a year before that option makes sense? What happens when GMC sees this giant mattress delivery market and pulls the box off one of their larger pickups and attaches a mattress carrying unit?

Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#35

Post by alexvoda »

perilunar wrote: post #30

> What’s the solution? A Colorado-based energy startup named Radia has an idea. It’s developing the biggest aircraft in aviation history. It is of course, not the biggest aircraft in aviation history — that honour belongs to the two Hindenburg-class airships, LZ 129 Hindenburg and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin. It's also shorter than the SpaceX Starship + Super Heavy combo is tall, (356 vs 397 ft), so it wouldn't even be the…

It can safely claim the title of longest airplane. I don't understand why companies and media agencies feel the need to overclaim.

Biggest aircraft really is a fuzzy thing.

What is big? The StratoLaunch, the Hughes H4 and the An-225 have a bigger wingspan. The Beluga Xl, the DreamLifter and the AN-225 have a bigger lift capacity.

What is an aircraft? As you mentioned airships and the Starship + Super Heavy both outclass it.

There is no shame in claiming longest plane or largest internal volume plane instead of biggest aircraft.

Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#36

Post by alexvoda »

testfoobar wrote: post #18
CodeWriter23 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a plane they can fly out the waste blades currently accumulating on wind farms and dump them in the ocean.

Why are there waste blades - this isn't the razor-and-blade model for wind energy is it?

The blades get worn in time (decades) due to multiple factors like: mechanical fatigue, erosion, UV, evolution of technology, etc.

They can not be refurbished or recycled into new blades but they can be repurposed to produce street furniture, reinforced plastic pellets or even as a concrete ingredient. So far there is not enough of an economic incentive to find uses for the quantity of blades being discarded instead of just dumping them. There are however companies and research projects working on making blades more recyclable and sustainable.

I also don't think dumping them is a huge issue. They do not leach toxic chemicals, do not produce microplastics, do not decompose into greenhouse gases. They are just a very voluminous waste product. In the transition towards a sustainable future I believe wind turbine blades are a really cheap technical debt to acquire.

Re: Gigantic new aircraft design aims to create the largest plane ever to fly

#37

Post by pedalpete »

kortilla wrote: post #22
bellorap wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea behind this plane is to enable the construction of the largest wind turbines specifically on land

Perhaps they could construct it on some of the land that touches the ocean

Like where most of the people live and where the ships are!
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