LEGO loves space shuttles. For most of my life, hardly a year has gone by without at least one space shuttle gracing the pages of a LEGO catalog. 2025’s entry to the shuttle pantheon is unique, however, as 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is the first time LEGO has made the Boeing 747 transport companion. This pair of Boeing 747 jumbo jets were specially modified to ferry the shuttle coast to coast between missions. This set depicts the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) N905NA, a converted American Airlines 747-100 built in 1970 then sold to NASA and modified in 1976, along with the Enterprise. The Enterprise was an unpowered shuttle prototype that was launched by the SCA mid-air for glide tests. LEGO’s homage includes 2,417 pieces, and will be available early to LEGO Insiders on May 15 and to all on May 18 for US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £199.99.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Unboxing the set and contents

With not one, but two large craft in the box and almost 2,500 pieces, this is a pretty big set on par with a modular. The box gets the now-familiar Icons treatment, with callouts on the back for the few functions included in the model. Inside are 16 paper parts bags, plus an additional one containing both manuals and the large sticker sheet. Most of the stickers are on clear backing, which means extra care must be taken in application as they’re very finicky. In a set this expensive, most of these ought to have been printed, as they were in 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery. In fact, it would be easy to swap that set’s United States bricks for the stickered ones here.

There’s a manual each for the aircraft and the shuttle. You can start with either one (or build them simultaneously with someone), but the shuttle’s smaller book contains the intros to the pair of real-life vehicles, as well as the kit’s design.

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The parts

One new element is introduced in this set, a new landing gear carriage that holds 4 wheels and connects with a Technic axle. A total of 5 are included for the SCA’s landing gear.

Printed pieces are scant, at least from a diversity perspective. Apart from the SCA’s windscreen, all the rest of the set’s printed parts are used to create the dark blue stripe along the aircraft’s fuselage. The SCA’s windows are all printed–thank goodness–so you get a whopping 22 2 x 4 x 2/3 curved slopes with the jet’s blanked-out window ports, along with some large slopes that continue the windows, and a few pieces printed for the stripe along the nose cone.

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The build

The shuttle is roughly the size of many of the minifigure-scale shuttles that LEGO has made–using the term “minifigure scale” very loosely to mean those that have a minifigure pilot, despite being wildly out of scale. This means it’s smaller than some of the largest shuttles LEGO has made, such as the gorgeous 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery from 2021. The basic delta shape is made with stacked plates that had me wondering if I were building a City set.

Once I got to the engine and nose sections, though, the techniques pick up with some more complex SNOT work to create the complex shaping.

The upper half of the shuttle is again pretty similar to City sets. I’m not sold on the windscreen being transparent black–it looks too much like you should see a single minifigure pilot sitting behind it. But although the Enterprise did originally have white pillars between the windows, it was later modified to have a black frame, so this solution is relatively accurate for the scale.

At this stage, all that’s missing is the tail, which is a straightforward stack of bricks attached to a couple of clips between the engine nacelles.

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So now let’s turn to the build for which the set is named: the modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. In quite a contrast to the simple way the shuttle began, the SCA begins as a chunk of SNOT bricks and gears that I wasn’t even sure of the final orientation of. Like a handful of other sets from recent years, some orange pieces are included that are purely structural supports during the assembly, and not part of the model.

The section becomes the primary landing gear compartment, and all the gearing creates a really cool mechanism that lowers and retracts all five landing gear carriages in a single action (the front carriage is added to the mechanism later).

Speaking of the front landing gear carriage, the core of the front fuselage and cockpit area is next, built as a subassembly. It’s then attached to the main landing gear section. Here you can also get your first glimpse of the white towball element that is used for the shuttle attachment points. Despite all the gearing inside, this core is shockingly sturdy.

The 747’s famous hump is a simple angled row of plates and slopes held in place at each end with clips. There’s a hole in the middle that nestles perfectly over the towball connector.

Finally, the large rear fuselage subassembly comes together. This section doesn’t have any mechanisms inside, so it’s just a big hunk of SNOT bricks.

With the fuselage core complete, the next step is to round out all the sides. The way it all comes together to make a very large cylinder reminded me a lot of building 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V: the cylinder is effectively eight-sided, with the orthogonal directions having curved slopes, and the diagonal directions having SNOT sections clipped into the central core.

Let’s skip ahead now to the next interesting bit, the wings. It’s always a bit of a challenge getting long, swept wings attached correctly, but the set’s designers took on the additional challenge of also having the wings angle up slightly, as in the real plane. This is accomplished through a very clever system of bars and clips, mostly using the 1×1 round plate with bar (AKA espresso filter piece). The engine nacelles are then attached simply using plate hinges.

The rear horizontal stabilizers also have a slight upward tilt, though this is achieved through a simpler design with Technic angle connectors. The outer vertical stabilizers (one of the key visual indicators that this isn’t a normal 747) are attached with ball joints.

Finally, there’s a stand that holds the plane, which of course holds the shuttle. As is often the case with LEGO stands, I marvel at how simple yet sturdy it is. It is covered with a few too many studs for my tastes, but that’s a trademark style of official sets.

There’s no obvious place on the SCA’s underbelly for the stand to slot into; instead it’s loosely cradled in the stand, though it does have a nice feeling of settling in when it’s positioned correctly. It’s a significant enough connection that the plane feels safe being displayed on a shelf on the stand, but if you pick up the plane, the stand will not be coming along.

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The finished model

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and Enterprise Orbiter are both solid models, but each suffers a little in overall shaping due to the limitations of their size. As I mentioned earlier, the shuttle’s size is not too far off of some of the City sets, and while it is definitely more detailed and accurate than any of those sets, it still ends up being a bit blocky.

Because the Enterprise was the shuttle prototype, it never flew any space missions, and all five of its flights were launched from the back of the SCA. So rather than including a satellite (the mainstay of LEGO shuttle payloads), this shuttle is optimized for flight aboard the SCA. When being transported, all of the shuttles were made a little more aerodynamic with a cowl over the engines; in the Enterprise’s case, the engines were non-functional anyway. In the LEGO Enterprise, the engines and landing gear are removed and stowed inside the cargo bay. This is an easy, but multi-step process.

How does it stack up against other LEGO space shuttles, though? In my estimation, it’s probably the second-best, unsurprisingly following the significantly larger and more detailed Discovery/Hubble set from 2021, which is the unrivaled champ. But although it’s smaller than some of the previous versions, new pieces and building techniques from the last few years make it more interesting than most of those older designs–though the 7470 Space Shuttle Discovery from 2003 holds its own remarkably well, even 22 years on. See if you can determine which sets each of these shuttles came from.

Moving over to the other vehicle in the set now, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is instantly cool. Adult-focused LEGO sets have been needing more airplanes for years, and few airliners are more iconic than the 747, even if this one is a highly modified variant.

Of course, this isn’t the first large Boeing jetliner that LEGO has made. In addition to a handful of microscale models, LEGO released a similar-sized model back in 2006: 10177 Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Although the 787 is a slightly larger-scale design of a smaller jet, it’s a great way to compare just how much LEGO’s official build style has evolved over the past 20 years. The 787 is constructed almost completely of stacked plates which give a very old-school, pixelated style.

The overall shaping of the 747 is spot on, with the upward-tilted wings bringing a level of accuracy that I don’t usually expect from an official model. The details, however, break down a bit around the nose. Short of introducing custom pieces, I’m not sure the shaping could be improved much at this scale, but the dark blue stripe definitely needs some work. The 1×2 dark blue tiles below the 376 lack the printing that’s present along the rest of the stripe, and the printing on the nosecone and inverted 2×2 boat tile on the nose tip is poorly aligned.

The landing gear, however, does not disappoint. It’s a tremendously impressive design, with all five wheel carriages lowering by spinning a single gear where the wings meet. There are no doors covering the landing gear when stowed, but that’s probably asking too much of LEGO’s finite ability to scale down (at least while retaining the functions).

Plus, this jet looks fantastic taxiing along with all the landing gear deployed. Don’t you just want to run to your pieces and build a whole airport at this scale?

One aspect that doesn’t come across well in pictures is just how sturdy the SCA is. Gripped behind the wings, this plane is extraordinarily swooshable, with little danger of anything falling off. Anything, that is, except the Enterprise. Clipping easily into the ball joints, the prototype shuttle holds on well, but I wouldn’t recommend swooshing a loop-de-loop with it unless you’re prepared for the Enterprise to do one of those mid-air launched solo flights. One other point of accuracy to note here: the rear shuttle mounting points on the real SCA have a large bracing member reaching forward from the attachment points that’s missing on the model, and while it wouldn’t be structural here, it seems like an easy detail that should have been retained.

Of course, they also look great posed in flight mode on the stand.

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Conclusion and recommendation

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is primarily going to appeal to two (probably overlapping) segments of the population: those who are space and NASA enthusiasts, and those looking for a cool model for the bookshelf in their office. On both counts, this set delivers in spades, as it’s an excellent display model of a very unique and interesting piece of NASA history. The build itself is engaging with quite a few advanced techniques for the shaping; the way the wings attach is especially novel. The landing gear mechanism is excellent and the new wheel carriages are going to be a boon to both aircraft builders and space greeblers alike.

LEGO Icons 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft contains 2,417 pieces and will be available early to LEGO Insiders on May 15 and to all on May 18 for US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £199.99. It may also be available from third-party sellers on eBay and Amazon.

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The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.