I've been living in the Seattle area for over 25 years, and as an aviation enthusiast, I've enjoyed the opportunity to visit most of the region's extraordinary range and variety of aviation themed museums and other aviation related activities.
Many people already know that Boeing has its main airplane manufacturing facilities in the Seattle area, and a tour of the Boeing plant in Everett is one of the activities I describe for your consideration, in the happy event that you may visit the Seattle area on some occasion yourself.
Other people might know about Seattle's excellent Museum of Flight (pictured above); which definitely deserves to be on your 'must see' list too.
But do you know of Microsoft co-founder and billionaire, Paul Allen's semi-personal but open to the public collection of warbirds, the Flying Heritage Collection? And while you may know about the Museum of Flight, do you know about their wonderful Restoration Center?
For those of you who wish to experience flight as well as to look at planes parked on the ground, I list various slightly out-of-the-ordinary flight opportunities, including in a World War 2 B-25 bomber, or going island hopping around the beautiful San Juan Islands in Puget Sound in a seaplane.
If hiring a WW2 bomber is too big a statement to make, there are similar aged biplanes (both open and closed canopy) and if you're a nervous passenger, why not enjoy the ultimate safety of a flight in a glider (no need to worry about engine failure – there's no engine to start with!).
On the other hand, if you're not at all nervous, why not go solo or tandem skydiving.
Further afield is the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum – another amazing museum that these days is the home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, and another hour or so drive further down the road is another excellent museum – the Tillamook Air Museum – that is sadly too often overlooked due to its comparative remoteness.
All in all, this new series – originally planned as a brief single page – sprawls over eleven web pages and even has a custom Google map showing where everything is located to help you plan your time and travels in the area.
You mightn't want to read all of it today, because if you do, you might find yourself feeling the need to travel to Seattle sometime soon. Click any of the preceding links to jump into the middle of the series, or click here to start in an orderly fashion at the beginning.
Hey David–Excellent wrap on the av-museum options. I’m a big fan of the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville. We got an upclose look at the Spruce Goose–and also had the chance to visit with Del Smith, Evergreen’s President. I knew about him through his remarkable rescue work in a helicopter, which is documented in Napoleon Hill’s book “Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion”. Fascinating story, btw. Evergreen’s Helicopter division got its start up here in Anchorage at Merrill Field.
Finally, I think it’s fair to say that Kenmore Air maintains a fine fleet of flying history with their deHavilland Beavers. We’ve flown them from their base in Lake Union up to Victoria and over to the San Juan Islands. Awesome!