Want to see a one-of-a-kind NASA plane above Wichita? Here are the details

Look to the sky around Wichita Eisenhower National Airport mid-morning on Nov. 7 and you’re likely to see an unusual airplane — even by Wichita standards.

That’s when NASA’s Super Guppy is scheduled to arrive at Eisenhower to pick up some historic mission control consoles restored by the Cosmosphere’s SpaceWorks division in Hutchinson.

The consoles are part of a restoration by NASA of its Mission Operations Control Room at Johnson Space Center in Houston. That restoration is expected to be complete by July to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing.

Each console is about the size of a refrigerator, a Cosmosphere spokeswoman said.

NASA’s Super Guppy is an oversized cargo plane resembling a sort of whale with wings that’s powered by four, turbine engines with propellers. The airplane can carry up to 26 tons of cargo in a compartment that measures 25 feet tall, 25 feet wide and 111 feet long.

The aircraft is expected to land around 11 a.m. on Nov. 7. The airplane, which will likely be in an area not accessible to the public, will stay overnight and leave the following morning at 8 a.m.

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 2:09 PM.