The Museum of Flight

As I mentioned earlier, we took a brief visit to Seattle this weekend. One of the nice things about living in Portland is that we are close enough to two other major cities (Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC) that weekend getaways to see something different are quite feasible. Even better, there is so much to see and do in all three cities.

If you are an aviation junkie, then Seattle is definitely one of the best places around to visit. Boeing was founded there, as most of you probably already know. They have massive assembly facilities for all their civilian aircraft currently in production or under development (737, 747, 767, 777, 787), which are located in the suburb of Everett. Supposedly they run tours of the place, but two of my kids were too short for the tour. Maybe in a few years, we will go back and do that.

Down in south Seattle sits the King County International Airport, also known as Boeing Field. This airport is primarily used as a general aviation and cargo facility. Two small operators (Kenmore Air and SeaPort Airlines) do offer limited passenger airline service on small prop planes to nearby destinations from here as well. Boeing also uses the airport as a test facility for its aircraft -- although in spite of the name, it does not actually own the airport (King County does). In fact, while driving by, we saw an All-Nippon Airways 737 taking off for a test flight to Moses Lake, WA. Really cool! Note that almost all commercial traffic flies into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac), located a few miles south of Boeing Field.

Anyway, one of the great things to do in Seattle is the Museum of Flight, which is located directly adjacent to Boeing Field. They have a great collection of passenger airliners to walk up and touch, including the very first 737-100 and 747-100 planes ever produced. An old American Airlines 727 is also there. You can also walk through the original Air Force One, a modified 707 built in the 1960s and flown well into the 1990s before being replaced by the current modified 747 fleet. Another treat is one of the British Airways Concordes, which you can also walk through. The exhibits and gift shop are wonderful, and there is even a mock control tower where you can watch planes take off and land on the Boeing Field runways right in front of you. There are also sections devoted to space flight and military aircraft, especially WWI and WWII fighters and bombers. It is an excellent place, even for kids. If you are ever in Seattle, I highly recommend it.

By the way, I picked up two really cool posters in the gift shop. One of them is a close up view of the 777 cockpit. The other one features a whole bunch of different plane models, painted in different liveries. I need to get some poster frames for these, but once I hang them up, I will have to take pictures and post them.