Museum of Flight (Seattle)

The Museum of Flight is the world's largest private non-profit air and space museum, located in Tukwila, just south of Seattle, next to King County International Airport (Boeing Field). Its collection includes more than 175 aircraft and spacecraft, tens of thousands of artifacts, millions of rare photographs and a world-class library; the museum welcomes over 500,000 visitors a year and runs education programs for more than 140,000 students.

History

In 1964 a group of aviation enthusiasts founded the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation to preserve artifacts tied to the history of flight. The first exhibits went on display in a 10,000-square-foot space at Seattle Center in 1965.

The turning point came in 1975, when the Port of Seattle leased the museum land for a 99-year term to house the Red Barn — Boeing's original 1909 factory building. The barn was saved from demolition, floated down the Duwamish River and restored; it opened to the public in 1983 as the museum's first permanent home.

Expansion and new exhibits

Over the years the museum grew substantially:

• 1987 — Vice President George Bush and four Mercury astronauts opened the Great Gallery, a space-frame structure holding more than 20 aircraft.
• 1992 — the Challenger Learning Center opened, giving students an interactive space shuttle flight experience.
• 1994 — the Wings Cafe and the Skyline multi-purpose hall were added.
• 1996 — the museum's first jet-powered Air Force One (tail number SAM 970) arrived and opened to the public.
• 1997 — an interactive air traffic control tower exhibit opened.
• 2004 — the J. Elroy McCaw Personal Courage Wing opened, displaying World War I and World War II aircraft.
• 2011 — the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery was added, housing a full-fuselage trainer (FFT), a mock-up shuttle used to train astronauts.
• 2016 — the Aviation Pavilion was completed, further expanding the museum's exhibit space.

Notable exhibits

• Lockheed M-21 — the centerpiece of the Great Gallery, restored and put on display in 1994.
• Apollo command module Columbia — displayed for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 2019.
• An interactive air traffic control tower exhibit showing how one of the country's busiest general-aviation airports operates.

Education programs

The museum runs the Challenger Learning Center, the Aviation Learning Center, summer camps and outreach programs across Washington and Oregon.

Getting there

The museum sits at the south end of Boeing Field in Tukwila, just south of Seattle. It is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.