Currently up on eBay is an original watercolor illustration of a McDonnell-Douglas cargo plane concept. Details are lean, but it looks like it dates from the 1980’s.
A multibody design make sense for heavy cargo lifters. By spreading the load across the wing, rather than suspending it from a single point, the wing is stressed considerably less. Of course, drag is noticeably increased and runways need to be wider.
This particular design seems a little odd… especially with the leading edge of the wing. Unless the aft fuselage is taller than the forward fuselage, or the wing is tilted up at a substantial angle of incidence, then the leading edge of the wing should be submerged into the upper fuselage, as the trailing edge is. Artistic oversight?
This deign makes no sense. The cost involved in logistics on the ground offsets its capabilities in a considerably negative way. It only makes sense in one way fuel use at high altitudes. However with less range and more drag fuel will suffer negatively for the majority of the trip especially take off and climb. Less trained crew. And then in war time, the loads would be in more jeopardy of being annihilated in one pass instead of two aircraft mitigating the risk.