By Jennifer Theurer

An Antonov An-124 airplane landed at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in the pre-dawn hours Thursday, January 15. Quite a few planes land at the airport daily, but this wasn’t just any airplane. Standing 7 stories tall, the An-124 is 227 feet long with a wingspan of 241 feet, that is just slightly shorter than one football field. According to Tulsa International Airport, where it stopped before flying on to Wichita, the An-124 can carry up to 150 metric tons, or 330,000 pounds, of oversized or heavy freight and features both nose and tail ramps for drive-on loading. It’s average speed for its flight to Tulsa was 562 mph.

With a design that started in 1966, the first model of the plane that landed in Wichita this morning was just a prototype in 1977. Its first manufactured model didn’t take to the skies until 1984.

As of 2025 only 25 of the massive planes remain in active service. This plane’s journey began in Milan, Italy, and it is rumored to be in Wichita to pick up Boeing 777 parts bound for Seattle.