Museum of Flight

About the Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight is more than just a world-class aircraft museum—it is also the largest K-12 educational program in the world, serving 140,000+ students yearly in onsite educational programs. Featuring an impressive collection of aircraft, the Challenger Learning Center, an Air Tower exhibit, café, and much more, the museum offers a once-in-a-lifetime look at aviation’s history and its future.

History

The roots of the museum trace back to the 1965 formation of the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation, which displayed aircraft at the Seattle Center—the home of the 1962 World’s Fair. The Museum of Flight concept truly began to take form by 1975. With a 1929 Boeing 80A-1 discovered in Anchorage being restored by the Historical Foundation over a 16-year period, this and other exhibits needed a place to call home.

The Port of Seattle acquired the Boeing Red Barn—birthplace of the Boeing company—on a 99-year lease, saving it from demolition. After moving to a new location, the Red Barn was restored in 1983, and it became the first permanent building of the Museum of Flight.

Many expansions to the museum have taken place over the years, including additions of the Great Gallery, a Library and Archives Building, and the J. Elroy McCaw Personal Courage Wing and Airpark.

Interesting Facts

If you’re passionate about aviation history, the museum is filled with interesting stories, facts, and displays from all eras of aircraft. With multiple facilities on-site to explore, you can spend an entire day wandering through the history of flight.

• The Museum of Flight features a total of 175+ aircraft and spacecraft, millions of photographs, 66,000 books, and tens of thousands of aviation artifacts—along with dozens of exhibits, activities, and experiences to enjoy.
• The T.A. Wilson Great Gallery was opened during a ribbon-cutting ceremony by VP George Bush in 1987, and it features 3 million cubic feet of space and more than 20 hanging aircraft.
• Built in 1992, the Challenger Learning Center is an interactive exhibit that simulates a space shuttle mission for students, and it includes space research experiments and a mock Mission Control center.
• The first jet-powered Air Force One, which was in service from 1959-1962, has been on display at the museum since 1996, when it was loaned for exhibit by the Air Force Museum.
• The J. Elroy McCaw Personal Courage Wing added 88,000 square feet to the museum in 2004, and it displays 25+ aircraft from WWI and WWII.

Points of Interest

Whether you are interested in aviation or simply love exploring unique museums, you won’t want to miss a stop at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Easy to get to and packed with incredible displays that you won’t find anywhere else in the world, it is a one-stop adventure for exploring the history of flight.