Museum of Flight

About

The Museum of Flight sits beside Boeing Field on the southern edge of Seattle, occupying more than 185,000 square feet of exhibit space that spans the entire history of powered flight. Founded in 1965, the museum houses over 175 full-size aircraft and spacecraft, including Air Force One (the Boeing VC-137 that served Presidents Eisenhower through Nixon), a British Airways Concorde, and an SR-71 Blackbird. The museum's six-story Great Gallery—a steel-and-glass structure completed in 1987—contains dozens of aircraft suspended in dramatic flying poses above visitors' heads. Adjacent buildings include the Personal Courage Wing, dedicated to World War I and World War II fighter pilots, and the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, which tells the story of human spaceflight from Sputnik through the Space Shuttle era. A standout feature is the museum's Challenger Learning Center, one of 50+ Challenger centers nationwide, offering immersive mission simulations for school groups. The Aviation Learning Center provides hands-on engineering challenges where visitors can design, build, and test flying machines. Outdoor exhibits include a decommissioned Boeing 787 fuselage mockup and the original Boeing factory building—the Red Barn—where William Boeing built his first planes in 1916. The museum offers robust education programming including homeschool days, summer camps, and school field trips aligned to STEM standards. Its location adjacent to an active general aviation airport gives visitors views of real aircraft operations throughout the day.

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