The Museum of Flight

From the museum’s website:

“The independent, non-profit Museum of Flight is one of the largest air and space museums in the world, attracting more than 500,000 visitors annually. The Museum’s collection includes over 150 historically significant air- and spacecraft, as well as the Red Barn®—the original manufacturing facility of The Boeing Co., the original papers of the Wright brothers, and the one-of-a-kind NASA Space Shuttle Trainer, used to train every space shuttle astronaut since the inception of the program. Among the most popular exhibits at the Museum are the world’s first fighter plane, the first jet Air Force One, the prototype Boeing 747, the West Coast’s only Concorde, and the world’s fastest aircraft – the Blackbird spy plane.* More than just an attraction, however, the Museum is a hub of science, technology, engineering, and math education, serving over 150,000 participants each year through on-site and outreach programs and the Museum’s aviation and space library and archives are the largest on the West Coast, holding more than 1.4 million images. The Museum of Flight is accredited by the American Associations of Museums, and is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.”

*The museum’s Blackbird is the only remaining MD-21 variant of the A-12/SR-71 series of aircraft. -KTU

This place will delight all aviation and aerospace buffs. The history of powered, heavier-than-air flight is well-represented from it’s sticks-and-strings beginnings through to the space age. Examples of many notable aircraft are on site, both military and civilian; I’ve spent hours there admiring the famous machines that I’d seen only in books. The Blackbird is the centerpiece of course, but I also marveled to see the fragile, human-powered Gossamer Albatross II hanging just above the sleek and massive Lockheed plane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two objects more dissimilar that can be described by the same noun.

The MoF is acquiring more items for its spacecraft collection: they didn’t get a Shuttle, but did land a training mockup. What’s next, in the future? SpaceShipTwo, perhaps? I’m crossing my fingers! -KTU