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apollonaut. Built by People Who've Been

Journal / History

Aviation, space & heritage

From a red barn
to the edge of space.

The story of the Museum of Flight, from a volunteer rescue of a 1929 airliner to more than 150 aircraft beside Boeing Field.

Fighters, trainers and light aircraft on the floor and hanging from the glass roof of the Great Gallery
Aircraft in the Great Gallery of the Museum of Flight.

A museum begins with a rescue

The museum grew out of the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation, formed in 1965 to recover and restore a 1929 Boeing 80A-1 found in Anchorage, Alaska. The name Museum of Flight was first used in 1968, in a small space at Seattle Center.

Wooden aircraft frames and early workshop machines inside the Red Barn, Boeing’s first factory building
A rounded control tower above one of the museum buildings, with cars parked in front

The Red Barn comes to Boeing Field

In 1975 the museum acquired the Red Barn, an all-wooden building of 1909 that had been Boeing’s original factory, for one dollar from the Port of Seattle. It was floated about two miles up the Duwamish River to the southern end of Boeing Field, and opened to the public, restored, in 1983.

Galleries for air and space

The Great Gallery opened on 10 July 1987, with aircraft hanging in a hall of three million cubic feet. The Personal Courage Wing followed in 2004, the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, home of the Space Shuttle Trainer, in November 2012, and the Aviation Pavilion now shelters 19 airliners and military aircraft.

Space Shuttle exhibits and a model of the shuttle on its launch stack in the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery

Continue exploring

Wooden aircraft frames and early workshop machines inside the Red Barn, Boeing’s first factory buildingThe Red BarnWhere Boeing began.A British Airways Concorde under the high steel roof of the Aviation PavilionWhat to seeGalleries, Concorde and Air Force One.Plan your visit

The Apollonaut collection

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