N780BA

N780BA is a Boeing 747-400LCF Dreamlifter, a four-engine jet operated by BOEING AIRCRAFT HOLDING CO. SkyMeter has tracked 554 flights totalling 2,927 hours of airtime via ADS-B across 16 callsigns. The most frequent segment is PANC to KCHS. Service window in our records spans 414 days. Of those flights, 18 (3.2%) carry at least one detected incident: a go-around, unstable approach, stall warning, or runway excursion. The Boeing 747-400LCF Dreamlifter has a 213 ft wingspan, a maximum takeoff weight of 803,001 lb.

About the Boeing 747-400LCF Dreamlifter

The Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighter, universally known as the Dreamlifter, is one of the most visually distinctive aircraft ever built, a heavily modified 747-400 with a massively enlarged fuselage that makes it the world's largest cargo aircraft by volume. Boeing created just four of these giants between 2006 and 2010 to solve a critical logistics problem: how to transport major 787 Dreamliner fuselage sections and wings from suppliers in Japan, Italy, and South Carolina to the final assembly line in Everett, Washington. The solution was radical: slice open a 747-400 passenger frame, graft on a 65,000-cubic-foot cargo hold that swells the upper fuselage into a bulbous shape, and install a swing-tail rear door for drive-in loading of assemblies up to 120 feet long.

The modification added structural reinforcement but retained the 747-400's four Pratt & Whitney or General Electric high-bypass turbofans, giving the Dreamlifter a maximum takeoff weight of 803,000 pounds and a range of roughly 4,200 nautical miles at typical cargo loads. Each aircraft can carry three times the volume of a 747-400F, though not three times the weight. The Dreamlifter is optimized for bulky, lightweight composite structures rather than dense freight.

The type operates under a special FAA type certificate and flies a tightly choreographed schedule, typically completing three round-trip circuits per week to keep 787 production flowing. While purpose-built for the 787 program, the Dreamlifter has occasionally carried outsize cargo for other Boeing programs and even supported humanitarian missions. Its unique silhouette, that enormous humpbacked fuselage tapering to a standard 747 tail, is instantly recognizable on approach, and it remains the only production aircraft specifically designed to carry other airplanes' fuselages.

SkyMeter has tracked flights across airframes and operators, with the sole observed operator.