What’s it like visiting the Museum of Flight in Seattle?

The Museum of Flight in Seattle is a dream location for anyone into aviation. It is stuffed full of aviation history, covering military aviation, civil aviation and space.

It is right next to Boeing Field in Seattle, which is north of Seattle Tacoma Airport. The Dreamlifter operates here, which is the aircraft that carries large components to Boeing for production.

Museum of Flight Tickets

Tickets are priced at $22 online which is similar to what you pay at the desk on arrival if you don’t pre-book. There are a raft of discounts on offer for the Military, Boeing employees, Veterans and the AAA to name but a few.

For those wishing to plane spot, there is a raised area by the runway of Boeing Field next to the museum. You can easily see the comings and goings and when the weather is nice, it’s a decent spot to gawk at the action.

Inside The Museum

You can choose to follow the way the museum is laid out. That is, you will start with the Wright Brothers and gradually follow through the years and associated advances in aviation. The halls are stuffed full of aircraft.

There is quite a large section on Korean War and Vietnam War jets. I quite enjoyed the space on the Apollo programme, with many objects donated from the estate of the late Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad, Apollo 12 astronaut and third man on the moon.

Weird and Wonderful

Wacky exhibits are not shied away from and by this I mean the car plane thing. Someone designed a car that you could add wings to and then fly it and an example is in the museum.

A mockup of the Space Shuttle is in one hall as well as other artifacts from around the place. Everything is described and there are quite a few audio visual elements strewn throughout.

The Aviation Pavilion

Easily my favourite part is the Aviation Pavilion. This is where you can find the first jet Air Force One and the prototypes of the Boeing 727, 737 and 747. That’s not all, there is a Boeing 247D, a Douglas DC-2 and one of the test versions of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

You can go on board most of these and it is interesting to see what they are like inside. The crown jewel though has to be the British Airways Concorde which you can also explore.

Overall Thoughts

Visiting the Museum of Flight is really interesting. My only issue is that I didn’t leave enough time to see everything properly, so my visit was a whistle stop tour of the things I liked.

There are many interesting stories to check out and I think anyone from the hardcore aviation geek to someone with a general interest would enjoy visiting here.

Have you visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle? What’d you think? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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