A Must Visit: The Museum of Flight Seattle

If you ever find yourself in or even remotely near Seattle (yes, even a one-hour flight detour is worth it!), you owe it to yourself to experience The Museum of Flight Seattle —a true haven for aviation lovers!

As the world’s largest museum dedicated to air and space, it boasts an astounding collection of over 175 aircraft and spacecraft, thousands of fascinating artifacts, and millions of rare historical photographs.

Casual visitor or a die-hard AvGeek, the museum’s immersive tours and exhibits will captivate you for hours—if not days. The journey through mankind’s remarkable innovation in flight truly comes to life here.

And the best part? You can step inside some of these legendary aircraft and see the world from a pilot’s perspective!

How To Get There

Getting to the Museum was a relatively easy 20 minute Uber ride from where I was staying in South Lake Union part of the city..

You can also get there via public transit systems with a combination of overhead Metro line that goes to the airport and Bus, this route will likely take close to an hour!

Ticket Prices

At time of writing, general admission tickets cost $26. There are various discounts for Youth/Senior Citizens etc including those returning to visit within 7 days!

More specific rates are available for military personal and employees of Boeing and other groups.

How Long Should You Spend in The Museum of Flight?

The museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm.

On the first Thursday of every month, the museum extends its hours from 5 PM to 9 PM, offering free entry during those four hours!

I’d recommend spending an entire day here if possible, but if you’re short on time, visiting on one of these extended Thursdays is a great way to make the most of the longer hours. Even with limited time, you can still catch the main highlights in about 3-4 hours.

In addition to the impressive aircraft exhibits, there are plenty of interactive activities, like flight simulators and VR experiences, to keep you engaged.

And when you need a break, there’s a fully catered café on-site for food and refreshments!

How To Spend Your Day At The Museum of Flight Seattle

The museum is vast, and there are specific tours that might catch your interest, so it’s a good idea to plan your day accordingly.

While I didn’t create a detailed schedule beforehand, I had a sense of my priorities and tackled them in that order. Keep in mind, these are just the highlights—there’s so much more to explore, it would warrant several posts!

Aviation Pavilion

Located on the West side of the Campus, you can reach the Aviation Pavilion via the Space Gallery entrance but it stands separated under it’s own roof..

In this site alone you could spend many, many hours ! So let’s see some of my best highlights are..

Concorde

The legendary Concorde, a joint supersonic airliner project between the British & French was conceived in 1950s. It was the only successful supersonic airliner in history. It first flew in 1969, entering regular commercial operation in 1976.

Concorde flew at Mach2, twice the speed of sound. Due to the sonic boom it created in its wake, it was mostly restricted to over water flights. It was able to fly from London to New York in just over 3 hours.

There are only a handful of locations in the world where you can see a Concorde close up, with many of them naturally in UK, this is only one of 3 US locations..

Loaned by British Airways to the Museum this aircraft with registration code G-BOAG, referred to as Alpha Golf  this was the 8th British built Concorde..

With a tragic accident at Paris involving an Air France in 2000 and high fuel/running costs, all the jets were retired in 2003.

What may surprise many about this aircraft is not that it is relatively small but just how slender a frame it is! It’s cabin width of 9.6 feet is marginally bigger than the Embraer E190 but at a length of 200 feet it’s longer than the Boeing 787-8 Widebody !

To fly at supersonic speeds, it had to be this way!

All this you can read about off-course but there is nothing quite like being able to step inside this glorious aircraft and through those doors

Starting with the cockpit..

Here, all original features right down to the pilot seats have been preserved.

It is quite a privilege to be able to see inside this 60s era tech marvel. It was undoubtably the King of the skies for over 3 decades.

There was a front rest room followed by one long cabin in a 2-2 setup. The seats are covered in Perspex to keep them protected..

Passing through the cabin, I could not help wonder, just how many celebrities of the era had experienced it’s magic.

While compared to modern First and Business Class luxuries this may seem a little underwhelming to look at ( no need for flatbed’s when you can cross the Atlantic under 3 hours! ). The real luxury of this plane was all about speed and the prestige associated with being able to fly twice the speed of sound!

While service would not been anything less than glamourous, I wondered if todays best First Class experiences can get anywhere near that, it certainly is far above anything British Airways offers now!

Back to the aircraft itself, the elegant “ogival” delta wing design was a stroke of genius that made it possible for the aircraft to produce lift at sub-sonic as well as supersonic speed, obviating the need for a more complex mechanisms..

I could not help but gaze in awe. I am genuinely unsure if a more beautiful wing exists today?

Some Fun Concorde Facts

• Only 20 Concorde were ever built between U.K and France
• Fastest ever flight from New York to London: 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds
• Last ever Concorde flight: London Heathrow to Filton November 26 2003.
• Over 20 years on there is still nothing like it flying.

After walking through the length of the aircraft inside, I proceeded to getting up close, right down to getting a good feel of those landing gears..

Concorde’s were equipped with four powerful Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 with a rather unique casing as illustrated.

It was one of those rare moments of reflection where I wished I was maybe 15 years older – and maybe, just maybe I would have had a chance to fly this marvel of engineering!

Still – I was lucky enough to remember several occasions where it flew overhead in / out of London as a child.

Air Force One 707 – SAM 970

Next up, lets get a deeper look into the first ever Jet age Air Force One ! This Presidential aircraft was a specially built Boeing 707, also known as SAM ( Special Air Mission) 970

This was essentially a flying Oval Office with Eisenhower the first President to fly this on August 26, 1959.

Due to other aircrafts in close proximity, it was tough to get a full shot..

Stepping in, crossed a new first for me yet again, my first time inside a 707 !

The cockpit itself  seemed to overflow on the sides with where the flight engineer would sit.

Moving on, to what you may call the real power room, a designated Presidential Stateroom..

There was not much in here besides a few chairs. Somewhat unassuming compared to what you may find on the current and future 747 variant

Within the front half, the cabin consists of a media/communications room with a very intriguing safe box, telephone booth and then also a mini Kitchen..

After this you have various zoned areas of seating. Some of which certainly look more plush than that of the Concorde seating earlier.

I appreciated that in most zones there was a window into a snippet of the past. A significant moment in history that this Air Force One played a role in, very much a living museum..

With limited time to take good pictures while simultaneously  everything recording this for a live feed,  you can check out on my Insta feed highlights for a better feel.

A final fact that gave me little goosebumps, SAM 970 remained in the presidential fleet ferrying VIPs and the Vice-President until June of 1996! It was still flying around the world well into my childhood !

Boeing 747-100

Moving onto the next legend, affectionately known as the Queen of the Skies, the original Boeing 747-100!

If you were to pick 1 aircraft out of 3/4 possible contenders, that changed the course of aviation and democratised flying, the Boeing 747 could be the one..

Most who had flown it may never had a chance to get this real close to size up its enormous scale! But here, there it is, just waiting for you to do just that.

You are able to explore almost every aspect of the key components that make this jumbo what it is. You can spend several hours going from tip to tip of this aircraft!

There is a wonderful cross section of a 747 fuselage in the Science Museum In London taken from a Japan Airlines 747, which I really enjoyed being able to see close up dissection of.

To be able to see the aircraft in it’s entirely is still an awe inspiring feeling.

Did you know there are three 747 operators in the world still flying this aircraft commercially? Can you guess the airlines?

As recent as two years ago, I was lucky enough to fly in one in the very nose, the Lufthansa 747 First Class !

What Other Planes Are There To See In the Museum of Flight?

As stated earlier, I would need multiple posts to cover all the other significant aircrafts that you could explore on this site. Each with their own unique history and impact to make the world of aviation what it is today..

Notable frames include a The Boeing 247, a 1930’s era Jet considered to be the first “modern” jetliner, pictured above in United Air Lines livery.

It’s main challenger the Douglas DC-3, which ended up being one of the most significant places in aviation history. TWA was the main operator of this aircraft, naming them the “Lindbergh Liner” ..

Moving onto the swinging 60s, you will find a Boeing 727, a successor of the 707 itself, in it’s United Airlines livery as it flew in.  This aircraft itself has largely informed and shaped the current generation of narrow body aircrafts we have flying today, such as Airbus A320 and Boeing 737s..

What made me sad not to see here, however,  was the incredible DC-10! A 1970’s classic trijet similar in size to MD-11s.

I think this is an incredible aircraft in it’s own right and was flying commercially right up until 2014 with Biman Bangladesh Airlines. I was lucky enough to fly this aircraft a few times as a child, and would love to be able to see it in display.

Coming up for Part Two

In part two, I will cover the T.A. Wilson Great Gallery, Space Gallary & William E.BOEING – Red Barn.

Stay tuned!