IATA 74BICAO BLCF

Boeing 747 LCF Dreamlifter

Boeing

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Oversized cargo carrier built to transport 787 Dreamliner components.

First flight

2006

Category

Wide-body jet

Range

7,800 km

Engines

4× Pratt & Whitney PW4062 turbofan engines

Status

In service

The Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF), nicknamed the Dreamlifter, is a heavily modified version of the Boeing 747-400 designed exclusively to transport large subassemblies of the 787 Dreamliner between supplier facilities and Boeing's final assembly lines in Everett, Washington, and North Charleston, South Carolina. The aircraft features a dramatically enlarged fuselage with a distinctive bulbous upper lobe, giving it one of the largest cargo volumes of any aircraft in the world. The unique tail section swings open to allow loading and unloading of outsized cargo components such as fuselage sections, wing boxes, and stabilizers. Four Dreamlifters were converted from existing 747-400 airframes by Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation (EGAT) in Taiwan. They are operated exclusively by Atlas Air on behalf of Boeing and are not available for commercial cargo service.

Notable operators

Operated exclusively by Atlas Air on behalf of Boeing for internal supply chain logistics.

Notable facts

›The Dreamlifter has the largest cargo volume of any cargo aircraft, at approximately 1,840 cubic meters.
›Four aircraft were converted from existing Boeing 747-400 airframes.
›The tail section swings open on a hinge to load large 787 subassemblies.
›Conversions were performed by Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation (EGAT) in Taiwan.
›In 2013, a Dreamlifter mistakenly landed at Col. James Jabara Airport in Wichita instead of McConnell AFB.