page_title: Unit load device
section_title: Aircraft compatibility
hierarchical_section_title: Unit load device / Aircraft compatibility
caption_attribution_description: English: Airbus A300 fuselage cross-section, showing the passenger compartment above and cargo containers below. On display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. Қазақша: Airbus A300 ұшағы фюзеляжының кросс-секциясы, жолаушылар орны мен жүк контейнерлері көрсетілген. Неміс музейі, Мюнхен, Германия.
context_page_description: A unit load device is a pallet or container used to load luggage, freight, and mail on wide-body aircraft and specific narrow-body aircraft. It allows a large quantity of cargo to be bundled into a single unit. Since this leads to fewer units to load, it saves ground crews time and effort and helps prevent delayed flights. Each ULD has its own packing list so that its contents can be tracked.
  The IATA publishes ULD regulations and notes there are 900,000 in service worth more than US$1 billion, averaging $1100 each.
context_section_description: LD3s, LD6s, and LD11s will fit 787s, 777s, 747s, MD-11s, Il-86s, Il-96s, L-1011s and all Airbus wide-bodies. The 767 uses the smaller LD2s and LD8s because of its narrower fuselage. The less common LD1 is designed specifically for the 747, but LD3s are more commonly used in its place because of ubiquity (they have the same floor dimensions such that one LD3 takes the place of one LD1). LD3s with reduced height (1.14 metres (45 in) instead of 1.63 metres (64 in)) can also be loaded on the Airbus A320 family. LD7 pallets will fit 787s, 777s, 747s, late model 767s (with the big door), and Airbus wide-bodies.
  Interchangeability of certain ULDs between LD3/6/11 aircraft and LD2/8 aircraft is possible when cargo needs to be quickly transferred to a connecting flight. Both LD2s and LD8s can be loaded in LD3/6/11 aircraft, but at the cost of using internal volume inefficiently (33 ft³ wasted per LD2). Only the LD3 of the LD3/6/11 family of ULDs can be loaded in a 767; it will occupy an entire row where two LD2s or one LD8 would otherwise have fit (90 ft³ wasted per LD3). Policies vary from airline to airline as to whether such transfers are allowed.
  The 787, intended to replace the 767, was designed to use the LD3/6/11 family of ULDs to solve the wasted volume issue.
caption: Cross-section of an Airbus A300 showing LD3 containers
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