The Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight is large enough to fill most of a day. Families move through galleries packed with full-size aircraft, spacecraft, engines and aviation history, then cross into areas where children can climb into cockpits or try the controls themselves. The scale is the main attraction.

Even a child who skips the text panels can compare a tiny early aircraft with a jetliner or stand beneath a much larger plane.

Kids Flight Zone adds concentrated hands-on play. Children can test two hang-gliding simulators, work with aircraft instruments and sit in the cockpits of a real Rotorway Scorpion helicopter, a homebuilt aircraft and a P-47D replica. A wind machine lets them test aerodynamic shapes.

Preschoolers have a soft runway area with plush planes and a small air traffic control tower. Check with admissions when you arrive because parts of Flight Zone can close for scheduled programs.

Most galleries are indoors, so the museum works well on a wet Seattle day. Some exhibits and aircraft areas are outside, including the open-air Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park, so a light jacket still helps. The museum says every gallery and restroom is wheelchair accessible, and its visitor rules specifically allow strollers.

Courtesy wheelchairs and noise-reduction earmuffs are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

General admission currently costs $29 for adults, $21 for youth ages 5 to 17 and nothing for children 4 and younger. Those prices include tax. Two adults and two ticketed children total $100. Parking is free in the museum lots. Metro bus 124 also stops directly in front of the museum.

Plan three to five hours, including a meal or snack break. Wings Café serves sandwiches, salads, hot entrees and drinks. Families who want a shorter or cheaper visit can use the free first Thursday program from 5 to 9 p.m. The official site also offers a discounted return visit within seven days when the original receipt is presented in person, which is useful if one day is not enough.