EVA Special Long-Distance Transport Aircraft

Keeping every anti-Angel asset parked in Tokyo-3 posed an obvious strategic weakness, so planners drew up an airlift network for the Evangelions alongside the construction of the units themselves. Heavy fixed emplacements could never be relocated quickly, but a humanoid weapon can fight anywhere it lands; once an Angel's approach vector is projected, an Eva flown ahead of it can meet the enemy at the shoreline. Because Evangelions depend on electricity and demand power infrastructure wherever they deploy, standing the system up proved difficult, yet real engagements validated the concept.

The result, abbreviated ESLDTA, is a fleet of enormous flying wing carriers charged with hauling Evangelions to distant battlefields at speed. The type debuts in Episode 07 and returns throughout the series, in The End of Evangelion, and in EVANGELION: 3.0 (-46h).

The airframe reads like a strategic stealth platform: a broad, flattened wing with no distinct vertical tail, echoing the B-2 and the conceptual YB-49, a configuration that shrinks radar signature. Prominent communication arrays and multiple embedded rotodomes cluster toward the nose, hinting that the fleet may once have flown early-warning duty before being converted to Eva transport. Four elongated turbojets hang beneath the body, while eight large rocket boosters under the wings assist takeoff, and oversized wingtip devices plus reinforced landing gear cope with the machine's bulk.

Wing markings such as "UN01" and "NERV" identify the operators. The craft's endurance suggests an onboard nuclear or N² power source, which would allow nearly indefinite flight without refueling. Automation runs deep; in Episode 07, Hyuga flies one of these giants entirely by himself.

Within the television series the transports appear in Episodes 07, 09, 10, 17, and 18, including a sortie where a pair of them deliver Unit-01 and Unit-02 into combat. Nine of these carriers appear in The End of Evangelion, releasing the Mass Production Evangelions over NERV Headquarters during the JSSDF assault; these variants wear simple 1 through 9 numbering, lack the usual radar domes, and sling their cargo from a mounting system never shown before.

In EVANGELION: 3.0 (-46h), Mari Makinami Illustrious flies a blue-painted example while Asuka Shikinami Langley, aboard the Evangelion Production Model-02α-EIV, pulls Midori Kitakami out of the path of the advancing Failures of Infinity.