The Pentagon Wants America's Biggest Plane Ever — China Has Nothing Like It

In February 2022, the largest cargo airplane in the world — the Antonov An-225 Mriya — was destroyed on the ground near Kyiv. Now a company in Boulder, Colorado is designing something even bigger: the Radia WindRunner, a 356-foot airplane built to carry wind turbine blades longer than a football field, six helicopters at once, and land on a strip of dirt. In this documentary, aerospace engineer Wei Chen explains how big it really is (and what the headlines get wrong), why a plane designed for windmills caught the attention of the Pentagon, what China has — and what it tried to buy — and the five problems that could still stop it. At the end: the one year that explains why the U.S. military is listening to a startup. ▶️ Related video: America's New Airship Is Bigger Than Three 747s — [link to video 02] Subscribe for the aviation stories nobody is paid to tell you. CHAPTERS 00:00 The giant that was destroyed 02:02 How big is it, really? 04:16 How the world moves giants today 06:07 A plane built for windmills 08:12 How to build the longest airplane 11:09 Why the Pentagon is listening 15:28 A day in the life of a giant 16:41 What China has 19:15 What could go wrong 22:15 Your questions 24:13 The number SOURCES Breaking Defense: https://breakingdefense.com/2025/09/h... The War Zone: https://www.twz.com/air/giant-windrun... Aviation Week: https://aviationweek.com/defense/airc... Air Data News: https://www.airdatanews.com/worlds-lo... Forces News: https://www.forcesnews.com/technology... IEEE Spectrum: https://spectrum.ieee.org/wind-turbin... CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/windru... Antonov An-225: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov... Xian Y-20: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian_Y-20 FOOTAGE & IMAGES Radia (official renders) · AIN FutureFlight · Royal Aeronautical Society · World Economic Forum Antonov An-225: antipants94 · HD1080ide · Soltau Cruiser · Air Charter Service · Videospotter · Le Bourget 1989 archive · Soviet TV / Gosteleradiofond · Reuters / VOA · Babylon'13 (Armed Forces of Ukraine) U.S. military (public domain): U.S. Air Force · U.S. Army · U.S. Transportation Command · Air Mobility Command · Alaska Air National Guard · NASA · NASA Ames · National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Other: Bonkeh Plane Spotting · Drew Wilbourn · Jerry Taha · Painefieldspotter · HeloJet1999 · pearsonba350 · DutchPlaneSpotter · Airbus · Composites Central · LM Wind Power · Shot Blast Media / Fred. Olsen Renewables · jacuzzibusguy · L-Ex Media / EWR · Third Coast Drone · GMAP · 32TFS Aviation · USAF F-16 Viper Demo Team · MUC-Spotter · Luhengfoto · CCTV+ · PRC Ministry of National Defense · CGTN · Oriental Vehicles · Periscope Film · Warner Pathé News · Stratolaunch · LTA Research · DLR Creative Commons: Vasiliy Koba (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Ralf Manteufel (GFDL) · Zavryk (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Bahnfrend (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Oleksandr Ratushniak (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Noah Wulf (CC BY-SA 3.0) · MarcelX42 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Nikita Zhuravlev (CC BY-SA 2.0) Music: original "Mach Line" theme. The WindRunner has not flown yet; all images of it are company renders and models. Dimensions, payload, range and timelines are Radia's own figures and targets. The U.S. military has a research agreement (CRADA) to study the aircraft, not a purchase contract. This channel uses an AI-generated presenter. Wei Chen is a fictional narrator character. #WindRunner #Radia #AN225 #Mriya #C17 #Pentagon #Aviation #CargoPlane