Boeing 747 Dreamlifter

The Dreamlifter exists because of a supply chain. The 787's giant composite fuselage sections are built in Japan and Italy, its wings in Nagoya — and shipping them by sea would take weeks. Boeing's answer was to take four used 747-400s and graft on a cargo hold three times the volume of a 747 freighter's, creating the bulging silhouette that makes every airport it visits stop and stare.

Its party trick is at the back: the entire tail swings open sideways on a hinge — the longest cargo loader in the world slides complete 787 fuselage barrels straight in. The conversion was engineered with Boeing by Evergreen in Taiwan, and the result is deliberately unglamorous: unpressurised in the main hold, unpainted-looking, and flown hard between Japan, Italy, South Carolina and Everett.

Only four exist, operated by Atlas Air on Boeing's behalf. During the pandemic they moonlighted hauling millions of face masks, and one earned brief fame in 2021 by landing at the wrong airport in Kansas — on a runway considered too short — and taking off again anyway. At 71.68 metres it is the ninth-longest aircraft ever built, and the fattest-looking thing in the sky.