Just seems very hard to believe a project as massive as a whole new airplane is the best solution to this problem.
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 aerodynamics.
So you could mask it and put fairings on it, and by the time you’ve done that 500 times you’ll wish you’d just built a special-purpose airplane to begin with.
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 FeverDreamlifter or BelugaXXL off an existing airframe.
Especially with A380s to be had rather on the cheap these days.
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 market that Boeing or Airbus are going for with their craft.
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?
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/wreq34/antonov_an...
Helicopters just aren't efficient enough, would have the same issues with wind (especially when carrying a giant airfoil), and would damage the blade if they came out even a bit out of formation.
You're right it doesn't make intuitive sense, but the people doing this are pretty damn smart and actually did think of these things!
A large wide body airliner with a big-ass shell and gravel kit retrofitted is still a large widebody airliner. Just one that happens to have a decent amount of headroom.
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.