Collier Aerospace software supports structural sizing of WindRunner cargo aircraft

Artist rendering showcases the WindRunner aircraft, approximately the length of a football field (356 feet), shown in HyperX software interface. Source | Collier Aerospace Corp.

Collier Aerospace Corp. (Newport News, Va., U.S.), developer of the HyperX CAE solution, has announced that energy company Radia (Boulder, Col., U.S.) has selected its design and analysis software for the structural sizing of WindRunner, a composites-intensive aircraft (read more about WindRunner here). Structural sizing is the critical process of determining the size and weight of primary aircraft structures.

Radia, along with Aernnova (Álava, Spain), Leonardo (Rome, Italy) and AFuzion (New York, N.Y., U.S.), is developing the WindRunner aircraft, an outsized aerial logistics platform designed to efficiently and effectively deliver the world’s largest cargo, such as wind energy turbine blades, spacecraft, satellites, defense cargo, airplanes and large commercial payloads. WindRunner aims to solve transportation bottlenecks with its ability to fly cargo that is up to the length of a football field, and land on semi-prepared dirt runways as short as 1,800 meters when required.

Collier Aerospace’s software and services help Radia’s engineering and design teams optimize and accelerate sizing for the massive aircraft’s airframe and efficiently evaluate and analyze many different design configurations under rigorous time and cost pressures.

“Using Collier’s technology, we can create and analyze design concepts in hours and automate the time-consuming process of evaluating hundreds to thousands of load cases,” says Mark Lundstrom, founder and CEO of Radia. “Collier’s software helps us efficiently evaluate design options and optimize WindRunner’s weight and structural performance in support of its critically important mission.”

Aircraft size comparison of the WindRunner and a Boeing 747-400. Source | Radia.

Radia began the WindRunner project in 2016 and brought in Collier Aerospace at an early stage as a software provider and engineering consultant. Using Collier’s methodology for structural sizing and analysis, Radia built a customized design process for the new aircraft’s requirements. The team conducted configuration assessments of the wings, fuselage, ribs, spars, stringers and many other parts, which will be made of both composites and metal. Radia leveraged the tool’s automated sizing capabilities to account for unusual variables such as the huge size and capacity of the unpressurized fuselage.

HyperX software automates stress analysis and design. It performs rapid structural sizing to all load cases, lightweighting and margin writing. The software also helps ensure the producibility of a composite part by creating a design that is optimized for manufacturability. It reduces schedule time by speeding up the engineering cycle and shortening the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification processes.