The world’s largest aircraft by volume enables direct transport of fully assembled rockets, boosters, and outsized satellites, strengthening responsive and resilient space operations.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ahead of the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference (Sept. 14 to 16, National Harbor, Md.), Radia is showcasing how WindRunner™, the world’s largest aircraft by volume, addresses one of the space industry’s most significant emerging constraints: transporting fully assembled rockets, boosters, and next generation satellites as they continue to outgrow today’s logistics network. Purpose built around cargo volume, not simply payload weight, WindRunner enables direct delivery of outsized space systems to launch sites, manufacturing facilities, and austere or distributed locations without disassembly.

“The rockets, boosters, and spacecraft that define the space enterprise’s ambitions keep getting larger, more capable, and more valuable. Yet we’re still relying on transportation systems designed decades ago,” said Mark Lundstrom, Founder and CEO of Radia. “WindRunner was designed to move the largest things in the world to the hardest places to reach, and that is exactly what the space community needs. Whether it’s a fully assembled booster, a recovered launch vehicle, or a next generation satellite, we can move it intact, in hours instead of days, without disassembly. With a low cargo deck height, nose door, and an innovative cargo loading system, the WindRunner will enable easier loading of outsized space related cargo. That gives the space enterprise an entirely new logistics capability.”

Why Now

Modern space programs increasingly run out of transport options before they run out of ambition.

Rocket stages, boosters, satellites, and other mission critical systems continue to grow in size, while the roads, ports, and aircraft available to move them have remained largely unchanged. As a result, valuable hardware is often disassembled, constrained by existing transportation limits, or routed by sea and road over several days or even weeks, adding cost, schedule risk, and unnecessary handling to some of the world’s most sensitive aerospace systems. At the same time, the U.S. Space Force and commercial launch providers are investing in reusable launch systems, distributed space operations, and more responsive launch capabilities. Those missions increasingly depend on the ability to rapidly reposition large space hardware between manufacturing facilities, test sites, launch complexes, recovery locations, and allied operating bases. WindRunner provides a new logistics capability purpose-built to meet that challenge.

WindRunner for Space: Key Capabilities

• Supports Responsive Space Operations: Enables movement of large launch systems in hours instead of days while supporting the recovery and repositioning of reusable launch vehicles for faster turnaround.
• Enables Larger Spacecraft Design: Accommodates satellites with roughly twice the dimensional envelope of those that can be transported fully assembled today, expanding possibilities for national security, communications, Earth observation, and ISR missions.
• Operates Where Others Cannot: Short takeoff and landing capability from approximately 1,800-meter unpaved runways enables access to emerging spaceports, distributed launch locations, and austere operating sites beyond the reach of conventional cargo aircraft.
• Moves Fully Assembled Space Systems Intact: Roll on/roll off transport of complete rocket stages, boosters, launch vehicles, and large satellites without disassembly or reassembly, enabling offsite integration and direct delivery to launch sites while reducing handling of sensitive, high value hardware.
• Works with Existing Infrastructure: Designed to operate using standard cargo handling equipment and conventional airfield infrastructure, eliminating the need for specialized loading systems or bespoke facilities.
• Targeting Entry into Service in the Early 2030’s: Developed with proven components using know certification processes that target service in the early 2030s.
• Flexible Transport as a Service Model: Provides surge logistics capacity to government and commercial customers whenever and wherever it is needed.

Rather than replacing today’s launch infrastructure or strategic airlift, WindRunner complements and extends both by providing a logistics capability for oversized, volume dominated payloads that no existing aircraft can transport intact. By connecting manufacturing, integration, launch, recovery, and sustainment operations, WindRunner enables a more responsive, resilient, and flexible space mobility architecture for government, allied, and commercial operators.

At AFA Air, Space & Cyber

Throughout the conference, Radia representatives will meet with leaders from the Department of Defense, U.S. Space Force, allied governments, commercial launch providers, and the aerospace industry to discuss WindRunner’s development progress, expanding defense and space applications, and its long-term role in transforming how the world’s largest and most complex systems are moved.

Radia will exhibit at Booth #551 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

About Radia

Radia is a dual-use aerospace company that is developing WindRunner™, the world’s largest cargo aircraft by volume. Designed to transport oversized cargo directly to locations inaccessible to conventional airlift, WindRunner enables new possibilities across defense, space, energy, aerospace, industrial manufacturing, humanitarian response, and commercial logistics. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, and Rome, Italy, Radia is supported by a growing global ecosystem of supplier and technology partners developing the next generation of strategic logistics.

Media Contact
Kathy Van Buskirk
Kathy@radia.com
+1 720 771 7651

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SOURCE Radia