U.S. company Radia is expanding its network of European partners involved in developing its enormous WindRunner cargo aircraft, while increasingly presenting the project as a potential solution to the shortage of strategic airlift capacity among NATO’s European members.

The latest partners to join the program are France’s Latecoere and the UK’s Stirling Dynamics. Latecoere will participate in the development of the aircraft’s electrical wiring interconnection system, or EWIS, while Stirling Dynamics will support flight control integration, simulation and related engineering activities. Radia says its industrial network now includes more than 20 suppliers and technology partners.

European companies already have a major role in the program. Italy’s Leonardo has been selected to develop and manufacture the fuselage, while MAGROUP Magnaghi Aerospace is responsible for the landing gear. Spain’s Aernnova is working on the wing, while Aciturri is developing the empennage. Italy’s Atitech is expected to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services, engineering support and assistance with the establishment of the planned final assembly line.

Other partners include U.S.-based Astronautics, which is responsible for the avionics, Brazil’s Akaer, which is working on the pressurized cabin, the UK’s Element Materials Technology for the fuel system and U.S.-based Ingenium Technologies for the high-lift control system. AFuzion is providing safety and certification consulting services.

The expansion of the European supply chain comes as NATO prepares to establish a multinational fleet of Airbus A400M transport aircraft. Belgium, Croatia, France, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom are participating in the initiative, which is intended to increase available military transport capacity and reduce existing gaps in the strategic mobility of European allies.

Radia, however, is not presenting the WindRunner as a direct replacement for the A400M, but as a significantly larger aircraft intended to carry exceptionally bulky cargo that often cannot be loaded into existing military transport aircraft without extensive disassembly. While the A400M can carry up to 37 tonnes of cargo, the WindRunner is being designed for a maximum payload of 72.6 tonnes.

The WindRunner’s main advantage, however, would not be the weight of its payload, but the amount of available space. The aircraft is expected to have around 6,800 cubic metres of cargo volume, approximately 20 times more than the A400M, 12 times more than the C-17 Globemaster III and seven times more than the C-5 Galaxy. Its cargo hold could accommodate up to 80 standard 463L military pallets, compared with nine in the A400M and 18 in the C-17.

According to the manufacturer, the WindRunner would be 109 metres long and have a wingspan of 80 metres, making it larger by dimensions than any aircraft built to date. Its high-wing configuration, wide fuselage and modular loading system are intended to enable roll-on/roll-off operations and the transport of complete systems without disassembly.

Radia says a single WindRunner could carry six Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters or four aircraft from the F-16 fighter family over a distance of up to approximately 1,100 nautical miles. The large cargo volume would also allow it to transport tiltrotors, unmanned systems, radars, satellite communications equipment and missile systems in a deployment-ready configuration.

The aircraft is also being designed for operations from limited or semi-prepared airfields. According to Radia, the WindRunner could take off and land with its maximum payload on unpaved runways around 1,800 metres long. This capability is intended to allow large systems to be delivered to remote locations, islands and dispersed military airfields without relying on major, fully equipped air bases.

In addition to conventional military transport, the manufacturer identifies the rapid relocation of fighter aircraft and helicopters, support for dispersed bases under the Agile Combat Employment concept and the transport of mobile hospitals, shelters and humanitarian aid to areas with limited infrastructure as potential missions.

One of the WindRunner’s main market opportunities could be replacing some of the capacity currently provided by Antonov An-124-100 aircraft. The An-124 can carry up to approximately 120 tonnes of cargo, but the available commercial fleet is gradually shrinking and ageing. Through the Strategic Airlift International Solution program, known as SALIS, NATO currently provides nine partner countries with access to up to five An-124-100 aircraft, with the current five-year contract due to expire at the end of 2026.

In addition to SALIS, NATO secures further transport capacity through the Strategic Airlift Capability program, which operates C-17 aircraft, and through the multinational fleet of A330 MRTT transport and tanker aircraft.

Radia plans to conduct the first WindRunner flight in 2030. Its business model envisages the company operating its own fleet and providing outsized cargo transport services to commercial, humanitarian and defence customers. At the same time, the aircraft would be offered for sale to larger military operators with sufficient demand and infrastructure to maintain their own fleet.

The project was originally developed primarily to transport extremely long wind turbine blades, but in recent years Radia has increasingly emphasized its defence potential. The combination of a vast cargo hold, the ability to transport complete systems and operations from relatively short unpaved runways could make the WindRunner a complement to existing fleets of A400M, C-17 and C-5 aircraft.

The WindRunner nevertheless remains a development project, and its main challenges are still ahead. Radia must complete the design, produce a prototype, conduct extensive testing and obtain certification for an aircraft whose dimensions and operational concept have no direct modern equivalent. Should the company meet its announced schedule, the WindRunner could offer a new option at the beginning of the next decade for transporting cargo that is currently too large even for most of the world’s military airlift fleet.