Museum of Flight Launches $140M Expansion

SEATTLE-With hope of becoming “the pre-eminent forum for experiencing and celebrating the wonder of flight,” the non-profit Museum of Flight on Tuesday ceremoniously launched the first phase of a three-part, $140-million master expansion plan that will more than double the size of the Museum facility over the next 10 years. Its completion will make the Museum the largest independent air and space museum in the world.

The first phase of the expansion, supported by a $59.3 million capital campaign, will result in the construction of the Personal Courage Wing, an 88,000-square-foot addition at the north end of the Museum’s existing campus that will provide a Seattle home for the aircraft of the Museum’s Champlin Fighter Collection, currently on display in Mesa, Ariz. The Personal Courage Wing is slated to open to the public in the spring of 2004.

The second phase, the Red Barn Pavilion, will be launched after the completion of the Personal Courage Wing. This steel-and-glass building will join the existing Great Gallery and the new Personal Courage Wing–and completely enclose the Red Barn, the 1909 all-wooden factory building that is the birthplace of The Boeing Co. and the Museum’s largest artifact.