https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/ 2026-08-14 monthly 0.8 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/nasa-moves-shuttle-fly_med-3.jpeg A Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with an orbiter aboard - perhaps the most improbable job ever given to an airliner. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/boeing_vc-25a_82-8000_usaf_med.jpeg The VC-25A, better known by its call sign when the President is aboard. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/boeing_747_lcf_n780ba-2_med-2.jpeg The Dreamlifter, rebuilt to swallow 787 fuselage barrels and wings. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/750px-yal-1a_airborne_laser_med.jpeg The YAL-1, which carried a megawatt-class laser in its nose. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/747_cmca_-_cruise_missile_carrier.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/agm-86-alcm-in-flight.jpeg An AGM-86 after release. The CMCA would have carried up to 72 of these - no artwork of the aircraft itself is known to survive. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/agm-86-alcm-on-pylon.jpeg ALCMs on a B-52 - the aircraft that carries them in reality. The CMCA would have held its missiles internally on rotary launchers instead. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/747_large_cargo_freighter_l.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/boeing_747_lcf_n780ba-2_med-2.jpeg The Dreamlifter's fuselage was rebuilt to more than three times the volume of a standard 747-400 freighter. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/b747lcf_dreamlifter_takeoff_med-2.jpeg Airborne. The shape is aerodynamically odd but perfectly flyable. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/747-asb-advanced-short-body.html 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/bahrainroyalflightb747sp_med-2.jpeg The 747SP - the shortened 747 that was actually built. Its economics are exactly why the ASB never was. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/b747-400_med-2.jpeg Boeing put its effort into the 747-400 instead, which became the best-selling 747 of all. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/boeing_c-33.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/nca-747-400f_med-2.jpeg The C-33 would have been a military 747-400 Freighter, close to the commercial aircraft in this configuration. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/b747-200bf_med.jpeg The nose door gives straight-in loading - but at a height that suits civil freight terminals, not austere airstrips. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/boeing_e-4_advanced_airborn.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/e_4b-1_med.jpeg The bulge behind the upper deck houses satellite communications equipment - the E-4B's most visible feature. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/800px-boeing_e-4b_usaf_73_med-2.jpeg Four were built, all on 747-200B airframes, and all remain in service decades later. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/boeing_kc-33a.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/slide19.gif The KC-33A proposal, with a refuelling boom under the tail. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/boeing_vc25_air_force_one.php 2026-08-13 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/boeing_vc-25a_82-8000_usaf_med.jpeg Boeing VC-25A 82-8000 in the blue and white presidential livery https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/air-force-one-interior-3.gif Cutaway diagram of the VC-25A interior showing its three decks https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/boeing-747-aac.html 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/240de49a1e04626063ffc49052e_med.png The concept in section - fighters stowed internally, launched and recovered through a belly bay. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/wiki_747-aircraft-carrier_c_med.jpeg Artist's impression of the carrier in operation. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/boeing-747-aac_med.png Launch and recovery would both have happened in flight. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/ed-force-one.html 2026-08-15 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/ed-force-one-brisbane_med-2.jpeg Ed Force One on the ground at Brisbane Airport in May 2016, during The Book of Souls tour. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/engine-testbeds.html 2026-08-15 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/747-engines-testbed_med-2.jpeg A 747 testbed outside Rolls-Royce. One position carries the engine under test; three known engines fly the aeroplane home. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/evergreen_supertanker.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/inflight_01_med.jpeg The Supertanker could carry an order of magnitude more retardant than a conventional air tanker. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/global-supertanker.html 2026-08-15 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/global-supertanker-firefighting_med-2.jpeg The Global SuperTanker laying a line of retardant over California during a 2020 firefighting operation with Cal Fire and the Bureau of Land Management. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/government-and-vip-747s.html 2026-08-15 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/bahrainroyalflightb747sp-3.jpeg The Bahrain Royal Flight's 747SP. The shortened variant suited head-of-state work: long range, modest size. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/boeing_vc-25a_82-8000_usaf_med.jpeg The VC-25A, Air Force One. The United States has flown 747s as presidential transport since 1990. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/e_4b-1_med.jpeg The E-4B Nightwatch, a hardened 747-200B command post. The bulge behind the upper deck houses its satellite communications equipment. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/shuttle_carrier_aircraft.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/nasa-moves-shuttle-fly_med-3.jpeg An orbiter rides on struts above the fuselage. Note the fins added to the tailplane. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/nasa-moving-shuttle-attach_med-2.jpeg Mating an orbiter needed a purpose-built gantry - the mate-demate device. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/aqsdgnycaaadtf5jpg_large_med-3.jpeg Discovery's last flight, to museum display in 2012. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/nasa-moving-shuttle-747_med-2.jpeg NASA 905 and NASA 911, the only two aircraft ever configured for the job. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/sofia.html 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/750px-sofia_in_air_med.jpeg SOFIA airborne. The telescope cavity is in the rear fuselage, ahead of the tail. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/800px-sofia_0925061247_med-2.jpeg Under tow. The airframe began life as a Pan Am and later United 747SP. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/sofia_med-2.jpeg An earlier scheme, with the NASA and DLR partnership marked on the tail. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/vc-25b-bridge-qatar-747-8.html 2026-08-13 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/vc-25b-bridge-with-vc-25a.jpeg The VC-25B Bridge (left) taxiing at Joint Base Andrews alongside one of the two VC-25As it stands in for, with a C-17 Globemaster III behind. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/vc-25b-bridge-flight-test.jpeg The aircraft on a flight test out of Greenville, Texas in April 2026, still unpainted before the presidential livery was applied. https://www.boeing-747.com/special_boeing_747s/yal-1_airborne_laser.php 2026-08-14 monthly 0.7 https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/750px-yal-1a_airborne_laser_med.jpeg The nose turret is the giveaway - it housed the steerable mirror that aimed the laser. https://www.boeing-747.com/_Media/748px-usaf_airborne_laser_med-2.jpeg The aircraft was built on a 747-400 Freighter airframe.