Boeing's Dreamlifter jet gives workers a giant show at Huntsville International Airport (al.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Lee Roop, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - At 120 feet, the big airplane's cargo bay is as long as the Wright Brothers' first flight. Inside is room for 8 million cans of beer or 80 Mini Coopers.

They call it the Dreamlifter, a modified Boeing 747-400, and there are only four in the world. Two of those four are parked at Huntsville's International Airport this month, and they drew an excited crowd Friday.

The flying moving vans were built by Boeing to ferry parts from around the world to assemble the airline's new 787 Deamliners near Seattle, Wash. Their first delivery was in January 2007.

How big are the Dreamliners themselves? The Dreamlifters can carry only one mid-body fuselage section or pair of 787 wings at a time. That's still 115,000 pounds of wings, if you're counting.

Atlas Airlines, the company that operates the planes, moved two of its four-plane fleet to Huntsville from their home in Miami to keep them safe from hurricanes. They weren't being used this month for Dreamliner supply runs, a Boeing tour guide said, so the thinking was, "Let's get 'em somewhere else."
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more: http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/09/boeings_dreamlifter_jet_gives.html



As you can see from the photo, a standard 747-400 fits snugly under the tail of the Dreamlifter! ;)