Historic Flight Foundation facts for kids
Historic Flight Foundation aircraft on display.
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| Established | 2010 |
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| Location | Felts Field, Spokane, Washington |
| Type | Aviation museum |
| Founder | John Sessions |
The Historic Flight Foundation (HFF) is an exciting aviation museum. It is located at Felts Field in Spokane, Washington. This museum collects, restores, and flies amazing old airplanes. These planes are from a special time in aviation history. This time was between 1927 and 1957. During these 30 years, airplanes changed a lot. They went from simple planes made of wood and fabric to powerful commercial jets.
The museum's airplanes are fully restored. They are in perfect flying condition. You can often see them fly at special events. These events include monthly summer Fly Days and the September Vintage Aircraft Weekend. The planes also fly at airshows across the Western United States and Canada.
The Historic Flight Foundation also offers many educational programs. They have a STEM program for students of all ages. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. They also teach about historic airplanes. Sometimes, you can even get flight training in these old aircraft! Experts from the museum also give talks about aviation. They share stories about the planes in their collection.
HFF also works hard to restore old airplanes. Some of this work happens right at the museum. Visitors can watch mechanics fix and rebuild planes. Other restoration work is done by special companies. These companies are experts at restoring certain types of aircraft. Some of the museum's restored planes have even won awards!
History of the Museum
John T. Sessions started the Historic Flight Foundation. He began collecting the museum's airplanes in 2003. In 2006, the museum started planning a special hangar. This hangar would hold all the airplanes. The HFF hangar first opened to the public in March 2010. It was located at Paine Field at that time.
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The museum got a de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide airplane in May 2017. This airplane was later damaged in an accident in 2018.
The collection of airplanes grew very large. The museum needed more space than Paine Field could offer. So, Historic Flight opened a second location. This new spot was at Felts Field in Spokane. It opened on December 17, 2019. The museum first planned to keep both locations open. But, due to new commercial flights at Paine Field, they decided to move all planes to Spokane. This move happened in the spring of 2020. The Mukilteo location then focused only on maintenance and restoration.
The museum had to close for a while because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it was able to reopen in 2021. The museum's Spitfire plane was damaged in July 2023. A month later, the museum announced it would temporarily close. However, it continues its mission to preserve aviation history.
Exploring the Hangar
When the Historic Flight Foundation was in Mukilteo, its planes were in a working hangar. This hangar was at Paine Field. Paine Field is also where Boeing builds large airplanes. The hangar at Felts Field in Spokane is even bigger. This means the museum can keep all its aircraft indoors.
At both locations, visitors could walk among the planes. They could watch mechanics work on and restore aircraft. Visitors could also see planes taking off and landing.
The museum also has other cool items. These include old military uniforms and flight suits. There are also several vintage cars and buses. One special car is a 1927 Cadillac Touring Phaeton. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once rode in this car. He used it to tour Glacier National Park in 1934. The museum also has two special "Jammer" touring buses. One is from Yellowstone Park and one from Glacier National Park.
Amazing Aircraft Collection
The museum has many incredible historic airplanes. Here are some of them:
- Beech Staggerwing D17S
- Boeing-Stearman Model 75 (a silver plane used by the USAAF)
- Canadair T-33 Silver Star
- de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver (They have two! One has wheels, one has floats for water.)
- de Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide
- Douglas DC-3 (painted in old Pan American airline colors)
- Grumman F8F Bearcat
- Hamilton H-47 (This is the only one still flying!)
- North American B-25D Mitchell (painted in RAF colors)
- North American P-51B Mustang
- North American T-6A
- Piper L-4J
- Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IXe
- Travel Air 4000
- Waco UPF-7
The museum's Douglas DC-3 is very special. It was built to "fly the hump" during World War II. This means it flew over the eastern Himalayan Mountains. Only 300 DC-3s were made for this tough job.
See also
- List of aerospace museums
