Boeing Dreamlifter
| 747 Dreamlifter | |
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| Boeing 747 LCF Dreamlifter | |
| Role | Outsize cargo freight aircraft |
| Manufacturer |
Boeing Commercial Airplanes Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation |
| First flight | September 9, 2006 |
| Introduction | 2007 |
| Status | In service |
| Primary user | Boeing Commercial Airplanes |
| Number built | 4 (all conversions) |
| Developed from | Boeing 747-400 |
| Images | |
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 Dreamlifter with A380
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| Video | |
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The Boeing 747 Dreamlifter (formerly Large Cargo Freighter or LCF) is a wide-body cargo aircraft. At 65,000 cubic feet (1,840 cubic meters) the cargo hold is the largest in the world. It can hold three times the volume of a 747-400F freighter. Cargo is placed in the aircraft by the world's longest cargo loader. It is an extensively modified Boeing 747-400 that is used exclusively for transporting Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft components to Boeing's assembly plants from suppliers around the world.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes announced on October 13, 2003 that, due to the length of time required by land and marine shipping, air transport will be the primary method of transporting parts for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (then known as the 7E7). Initially, three used passenger 747-400 aircraft were to be converted into an outsize configuration in order to ferry sub-assemblies from Japan and Italy to North Charleston, South Carolina, and then to Washington state for final assembly, but a fourth was subsequently added to the program. The Large Cargo Freighter has a bulging fuselage similar in concept to the Super Guppy and Airbus A300-600ST Beluga outsize cargo aircraft, which are also used for transporting wings and fuselage sections.
The LCF conversion was partially designed by Boeing's Moscow bureau and Boeing Rocketdyne with the swing tail designed in partnership with Gamesa Aeronáutica of Spain. Modifications were carried out in Taiwan by Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation, a joint venture of Evergreen Group's EVA Air and General Electric, Boeing has acquired the four second-hand 747-400s; one former Air China aircraft, two former China Airlines aircraft, and one former Malaysia Airlines aircraft.
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