12/12 UPDATE: The Super Guppy finally landed late Thursday and was taken to a hanger at NASA Langley.
It was to be unloaded Friday morning with some help from the U.S. Air Force.
Discovery Channel's Mighty Planes TV crew was on hand for the event as well.
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11:15 a.m.: The Super Guppy is leaving almost two hours late due to fog in Amarillo, so its arrival in Hampton is expected Thursday night.
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HAMPTON -- A strange-looking plane will be flying over Hampton Roads Thursday afternoon.
It sort of looks like a whale. It's NASA's Super Guppy and it will land at Langley Research Center in Hampton.
It's carrying a lightweight composite, futuristic hybrid wing body aircraft made by Boeing Company. Researchers at NASA Langley will bend, pressurize and eventually break the 30-foot, 25,000-pound composite fuselage cross-section, officials said.
"Langley's Combined Loads Test System will subject the revolutionary carbon-fiber architecture test article to conditions that simulate loads typically encountered in flight," said spokeswoman Kathy Barnstorff.
Track the plane: Super Guppy's trip
The Super Guppy wasaset to arrive in Hampton around 3:30 p.m. and be unloaded Friday.
