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My son has been obsessed with paper airplanes lately.  Any scrap of paper left unattended is at risk of being folded.  Paper airplanes soar through the house constantly.  Sometimes getting stuck in high places.

I wanted to expand on his love of paper airplanes.  Isn’t that what ‘sneaky learning’ is all about?  Adding a little education to a subject that is already loved.

Hannah was on a field trip with one of her co-op classes, so Ben and I headed to Seattle to visit the Museum of Flight.

Seattle Museum of Flight

One of the great things about the Museum of Flight is that there is something for everyone.  Well, assuming they have any interest at all in planes, of course.  I saw all age groups there and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

T.A. Wilson Great Gallery

Our first stop was the T.A. Wilson Great Gallery.  This is a huge two story room FULL of airplanes.  The majority of these planes are originals, but there are a few reproductions in the mix.

There are planes on the floor and suspended from the ceiling.  This means that you are surrounded by a huge variety of aircraft.

Ben was in awe of all of the airplanes.  He was able to see planes in person that he had only read about.

This portion of the museum houses a few hands-on planes.  You can actually climb into a Stinson SR Reliant and a Bowers Fly Baby plane. How cool is that?!

It is hard to tell what Ben enjoyed more – sitting in a cockpit or walking through the first class section of a commercial passenger plane.  Ben has flown many times, but never first class and he thought this was really neat.  I suspect a child that has never flown would be even more impressed.

If you have kids under the age of 8, be sure to swing by the Alaska Airlines Aerospace Education Center and check out an Exploration Backpack.  The Insect Adventure Backpacks and Spy Adventure Backpacks area available for free check out while in the museum.  Ben is just outside of this age group so we didn’t check them out, but it is a nice bonus if you have younger kids.

The T.A. Wilson Great Gallery is home to a few other exhibits – the Flight Zone and Tower.

The Flight Zone

This area is full of airplane play structures and hands-on exhibits showcasing the scientific principles of flight.  Your child can experience the roll, pitch, and yaw of flying.  This area was pretty empty on a Monday morning, so Ben was able to check it out pretty thoroughly.

I highly recommend checking out these exhibits if you are visiting with young children.

The Tower

The Seattle Flight Museum has a flight tower with screens that show all of the planes currently in the sky over the United States. I rationally knew that there are always a lot of planes in the sky, but seeing it on a screen was pretty amazing.

Ben has been to a real control tower before (his grandfather worked at an airport), but he still enjoyed this area.  In this tower, he was allowed to push buttons. 😉

William E. Boeing Red Barn

Our next stop in the Seattle Museum of Flight was the Red Barn exhibit. This area highlights the beginning of the Boeing Company with the original manufacturing plant.

We saw a few exhibits about the beginning of American flight, but didn’t spend much time in that section.  We have gone to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, NC so we had seen all of that before.

The part that Ben found fascinating were the photos of flights from the 1940’s and 50’s.  People dressed up to fly.  Meals were served with real china.  It is a totally different experience today, unless you fly first class.

J.Elroy McCaw Personal Courage Wing

This portion of the Museum of Flight is all about the aircraft involved in World War 1 and World War 2.  We didn’t spend much time in this section because Ben’s attention was starting to wane.

The exhibit is full of fighter planes from various countries.  I put Ben’s knowledge to the test by asking him to guess which planes belonged to which countries.  He actually did pretty well!

I plan to bring Hannah and Ben back to this exhibit when we study World War 1 and 2.  They will appreciate the display more when they have more background knowledge.

Museum of Flight Gift Shop

I am a sucker for museum gift shops.  Educational toys, activities, posters, and books…all relevant to the field trip?  Yes, please!

We browsed a while, and ended up buying a few airplane shaped cookie cutters, an airplane stencil book, astronaut ice cream, and a few postcards.

There are plenty of cute children’s books about airplanes, but they were cheaper on Amazon so we decided against buying them.

Museum of Flight Tips

Parking:  Plentiful.  There was plenty of room in the main parking lot for our weekday visit, but there is an overflow lot for busy weekends.

Bathrooms: The bathrooms are mainly in the hallway, so be sure to visit before entering the exhibits.

Food: There is a cafe in the museum, but we did not check it out.  There were signs saying that outside food was not permitted, so if you bring a lunch or snack, plan to eat it outside in the grassy area.

Once we were home we put our gift shop purchases to good use.  Ben and I quickly whipped up a batch of white and blue play dough to use with the airplane cookie cutters.  Kids always seem to love play dough, even at almost 9 and 12.

I put the post cards in the boredom busting basket with a few fun pens.  I do not make the kids use them, but they are available if they want to send a post card to a friend or grandparent.

Postcards also make excellent story starters.  Post cards that do not get sent will eventually end up in my writer’s workshop bag.  Sometimes the stories created are completely fictional and sometimes they are sparked by the field trip.

Have you ever visited the Museum of Flight?

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