The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum in the Seattle, Washington metropolitan area. It is located at the southern end of King County International Airport (Boeing Field) in Tukwila, immediately south of Seattle. It was established in 1965 and is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is the world’s largest private air and space museum and hosts large K–12 educational programs. The museum attracts over 500,000 visitors annually and serves more than 140,000 students annually through its onsite programs: a Challenger Learning Center, an Aviation Learning Center, and a summer camp (ACE), as well as outreach programs that travel throughout Washington and Oregon.
History
The Museum of Flight can trace its roots back to the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation, founded in 1965 to recover and restore a 1929 Boeing 80A-1 discovered in Anchorage, Alaska. The restoration took place over 16 years, and after completion, it was put on display as a centerpiece for the museum. In 1968, the name “Museum of Flight” first appeared in a 10,000-square-foot facility rented at the Seattle Center. Planning began at this time for a more permanent structure, and preliminary concepts were drafted. Bed Bug Exterminator Seattle
In 1975, The William E. Boeing Red Barn was acquired for one dollar from the Port of Seattle, which had taken possession of it after Boeing abandoned it during World War II. The 1909 all-wooden Red Barn, the company’s original home, was barged two miles (3 km) up the Duwamish River to its current location at the southwestern end of Boeing Field. Fundraising was slow in the late 1970s, and after restoration, the two-story Red Barn was opened to the public in 1983.
That year, a funding campaign was launched to raise capital for constructing the T.A. Wilson Great Gallery. In 1987, Vice President George Bush, joined by four Mercury astronauts, cut the ribbon to open the facility on July 10, with an expansive volume of 3,000,000 cubic feet (85,000 m3). The gallery’s structure is built in a space frame lattice structure and holds more than 20 hanging aircraft, including a Douglas DC-3 weighing more than nine tons.
Exhibits and Facilities
On its grounds is the Personal Courage Wing (PCW), with 28 World War I and World War II aircraft from several countries, including Germany, Russia, and Japan. The “Red Barn,” a registered historic site known as Building No. 105. Built-inS 1909, the building was used during the early 1900s as Boeing’s original manufacturing plant. Through photographs, film, oral histories, and restoration of workstation, the exhibits in the Red Barn illustrate how wooden aircraft structure with fabric overlays was manufactured in the early years of aviation and provides a history of aviation development through 1958. In June 2007, the Museum opened a new space exhibit: “Space: Exploring the New Frontier,” which traces the evolution of space flight from the times of Dr. Robert Goddard to the present and into future commercial spaceflight.
Address: 9404 E Marginal Way S, Seattle, WA
Check out other attractions like Museum of Pop Culture
