A day at the museum.

One of my favorite activities is visiting museums, as long as they have airplanes. Any kind of airplane will do. In fact my wife thinks that I have more pictures of airplanes than we have of our children, grandchildren, and extended family combined. I have never counted but airplanes seem to be a lot more photogenic than my children, maybe because most of my children look like me.

My new favorite museum is the Flying Heritage Collection in Everett, Washington. This is a private museum owned by Paul Allen of Microsoft fame. Paul does a wonderful job of restoring historic aircraft to pristine condition and actually flying them for all of us to see. These planes are old, rare, and beautiful. The museum rates the airplanes on their accuracy of restoration and authenticity. The standard of restoration is extremely high and every effort is made to bring the aircraft back to the original factory condition.

Several times a year the museum will fly the aircraft in a miniature air show. This is a tremendous service for the public since the show is free of charge. There is a charge to enter the museum building but the price is low enough and well worth the money. The airplanes are so well kept that after flying, the museum staff thoroughly cleans the airplanes before rolling them back into the display areas. All the aircraft are displayed very well, with plenty of history and information. The museum has excellent examples of a Spitfire, Hellcat, Thunderbolt, Mustang, Oscar, Zero, Tomahawk, Fieseler Storch, Focke-Wolf Dora, Komet, and a stunning Hurricane. I shouldn’t single out the Hurricane since they are all stunning, but the interior of the Hurricane is dramatically exposed by removing access panels and cowl. The level of restoration workmanship is unbelievable. There are other not so well known aircraft including the Polikarpov UO-2/PO-2 biplane. A partial Lancaster can be viewed up close and examples of the V-1 and Fiesler Fi-103R are on display.

October 18, 2008 was the museums "Fly-Day" for the I-16 and Me-109. These two aircraft were pitched against each other in the Spanish Civil War and the Eastern Front of World War II. I wont bore you with their histories; please refer to the museums website http://www.flyingheritage.com/.

The weather was perfect and the crowd large. The pilots flew the aircraft flawlessly and I was enthralled. I don’t think I was the only one. It was a dream come true for most of us. The spouses were bored but mostly tolerant. My wife used the time to go for a long walk and purchase gifts for the grandchildren. At least she purchased an airplane t-shirt for an upcoming 4 year old birthday. Lucky kid!

I admit to being an airplane junkie all my life (my wife calls it an addiction) and have had a particular fondness for the I-16. Until recently I had only dreamed of seeing a real I-16 because there were very few remaining examples and they were all located in continents other than my own. That changed several years ago when a few I-16 remnants were found in Russia, retrieved, rebuilt, and additional aircraft built in the very factory that built the original aircraft in the 30's and 40's. These aircraft are now on display and flying in New Zealand, Europe, and the US. The Flying Heritage Collection purchased one of these aircraft and has displayed it for the last few years. My dream had been to just see one of these rare aircraft and I had never ever expected to see one fly.

Thank you, Paul Allen for using your resources and energy to provide this exceptional service to the aviation world.