Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle

Updated: October 2026 – There are not many places where you can stand in front of the very first Boeing 747 and at the same time watch a brand-new 737 glide in to land. The Museum of Flight at the southwest corner of Boeing Field in Seattle is such a place. In the Aviation Pavilion are parked the jumbo prototype, a Concorde and the first jet-powered Air Force One, and a few hundred meters away test aircraft, freighters and business jets taxi along the main runway.

This page shows you what you see in the museum, where to stand at the airfield, when the light is right and how best to divide up your day.

Boeing Field: Seattle’s old airport

Boeing Field is officially called King County International Airport and belongs to the county of the same name. The field lies about eight kilometers south of downtown; construction of the first runway began in 1928, and it was named after company founder William E. Boeing. Until the opening of Seattle-Tacoma in 1944, Boeing Field was the city’s most important airport, and regular airline service ended here in 1971. Incidentally, in 1954 the prototype of the later Boeing 707 landed at this field for the first time.

Today Boeing Field has two parallel runways: the main runway 14R/32L at a good 3,050 meters and the short 14L/32R at about 1,130 meters. Until August 2017 they were called 13/31 – the renaming followed the slow shift of the Earth’s magnetic field. Many older spotter guides still use the old numbers; don’t let that confuse you.

Traffic is different from a big hub. The largest share is general aviation and business flights, plus UPS Airlines with a hub, smaller cargo airlines and Kenmore Air with scheduled flights to the San Juan Islands. And then there is Boeing itself.

Test flights: the real spotter draw

The Boeing 737 is built at the Renton plant at the south end of Lake Washington. After the first flight, many aircraft go to Boeing Field, where according to Wikipedia Boeing makes the final preparations for delivery. For you that means: with a bit of luck you see new 737 MAX 8 and 737 MAX 9 in their customers’ fresh livery, partly with registrations from around the world and occasionally with identifications you will never see in the US again. Boeing aircraft for military customers also show up, such as 737 derivatives.

There is no flight schedule for any of this. Test flights depart when the aircraft is ready and the weather fits – spotters like to call it “Boeing time.” So plan for patience and keep a flight tracker open. How to follow ferry and delivery flights specifically is in the article Following delivery and ferry flights. Which liveries manufacturers put on their own test aircraft is shown in the article on house liveries of Airbus, Boeing and Embraer.

The Aviation Pavilion: jumbo, Concorde and Air Force One

The Aviation Pavilion is on the museum’s West Campus, on the other side of East Marginal Way. You reach it via a pedestrian bridge. Under a large, open-sided roof stand 19 airliners and military aircraft on about 1.2 hectares. For spotters it is the heart of the visit.

Boeing 747 N7470 “City of Everett”

The star is the first Boeing 747, a 747-121 with the registration N7470, known at Boeing as RA001. It rolled out of the hangar in Everett in September 1968 and took off on February 9, 1969, for the jumbo’s first flight. No airline ever got it: after certification it continued flying as a test aircraft for Boeing, and in 1995 it came to Boeing Field on its last flight. The type is described in the profile on the Boeing 747-100; how to tell the variants apart is shown in the article Recognizing the Boeing 747-100 to 747-8.

Concorde G-BOAG

The Concorde G-BOAG flew for British Airways and, according to Wikipedia, is one of only four Concorde on display outside Europe. In November 2003 it came from New York to Seattle – according to the museum in just under four hours. You can read more about the supersonic aircraft on the type page for the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde and in the article on the history of the Concorde.

VC-137B SAM 970

The VC-137B with the identification SAM 970 is a military version of the Boeing 707 and was the first US presidential aircraft with jet engines. It was in service from 1959 to 1996 and is now on loan from the Air Force museum. “Air Force One,” by the way, is not an aircraft name but the callsign of any Air Force aircraft the president is aboard. The family of government 707s is described on the page for the Boeing VC-137.

More prototypes and classics

Exhibit	What makes it special
Boeing 727	Prototype of the three-engine family, more at the Boeing 727-100
Boeing 737	Prototype, later a long-serving NASA research aircraft – type: Boeing 737-100
Boeing 787-8 N787BX	third Dreamliner prototype, production version: Boeing 787-8
B-17F and B-29	Boeing bombers of World War II: B-17 and B-29
Boeing 247D, Douglas DC-2	Airliners of the 1930s from the collection (location in the museum may change): Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2

Which aircraft you can enter changes. Described as walk-through are, among others, the 747, the Concorde, Air Force One and the 787 – ask at the entrance what is open on your day.

Main building: Great Gallery, Red Barn and tower

On the east side of the road, between East Marginal Way and the airfield, is the main building. In the glass-walled T.A. Wilson Great Gallery more than 20 aircraft hang from the ceiling. On the floor stands the Lockheed M-21 with the reconnaissance drone D-21 mounted on top – according to Wikipedia the only surviving M-21, a variant from the family of the SR-71 Blackbird.

Right next to it stands the Red Barn, a wooden building of 1909 that Boeing used as its first factory building. If you want to understand the manufacturer’s development from a wooden shed on the Duwamish River to today, you will find it here. More about the building itself, its history and further galleries such as the Personal Courage Wing or the Space Gallery is in the profile of the Museum of Flight.

Particularly exciting for spotters is the tower exhibit. The full-size replica of a control tower opened in 1997 and looks directly onto the runways of Boeing Field. After a redesign in 2009, according to the museum you listen in on the real radio traffic between controllers and pilots while you watch the aircraft on approach. Photographically you are limited behind glass, but as an observation post and for understanding what is happening outside, the tower is unbeatable.

The spots around the airfield

The museum is the most convenient place at Boeing Field, but not the only one. Spotter guides describe several vantage points.

At the museum and in the parking lot: The museum is next to threshold 32L. In north operation aircraft land close to the grounds, in south operation you see the takeoffs on 14R at the end of their takeoff roll. Spotter guides name the area at the entrance and the parking lot as a good place to watch traffic; aircraft on approach are easy to read from there. Whether the parking lot stays open after the museum closes is best clarified on site.

Midfield at East Marginal Way and South 86th Place: About a ten-minute walk north of the museum is a small fenced viewing area with a view of all movements on the main runway. For ground-level shots the fence is in the way, a small ladder can help. There is only room for a few cars, and a reader comment asks whether the area is still accessible. Get a picture of the situation beforehand.

Ruby Chow Park: At the north end of the field, at the corner of Albro Place and Hardy Street, is a small park directly under the approach to 14R. The aircraft come in low here, including new 737s. The problem is the light: you mostly shoot into the sun. There are a few benches.

Vantage point	Runway	Light	Strength
Tower exhibit	14R/32L	behind glass	Radio traffic and overview
Museum and parking lot	32L landings, 14R takeoffs	from late morning	convenient, registrations easy to read
Midfield South 86th Place	14R/32L	afternoon	all movements, fence in the frame
Ruby Chow Park	14R approaches	mostly backlight	very low approaches

How to judge in advance which direction flying is currently in is explained in the guide Understanding the runway direction in use at an airport. For the live picture, the article ADS-B flight tracking helps.

Light and photography

The museum is west of the main runway, so you look east onto the airfield. In the morning the sun is over the field and in your face; from late morning it moves south and west and comes more and more from behind. The afternoon is therefore the best time for movements at Boeing Field, the morning the best time for the halls.

In the Aviation Pavilion the roof is a curse and a blessing: it protects against the notorious Seattle rain, but the light falls in from the side and unevenly, and the aircraft stand close together. A wide-angle lens is a must if you want the jumbo or the Concorde fully in the frame – tips in the article Wide-angle and normal lenses for spotting. For test flights and approaches from the parking lot, a telephoto zoom up to about 300 mm is enough, for midfield rather more. You check the current rules for tripods in the museum on site.

Planning your visit: hours, tickets, getting there

The address is 9404 East Marginal Way South in Seattle. According to the museum it is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it stays closed on Thanksgiving and December 25 (as of October 2026).

• Admission: Adults $29, seniors 65 and up $25, youth ages 5 to 17 $21, children up to four free.
• Free evening: On the first Thursday of the month admission is free from 5 to 9 p.m. – a good opportunity to combine the museum and evening light at the airfield.
• Parking: free according to the museum.
• Two campuses: The main building and the Aviation Pavilion are on opposite sides of East Marginal Way, connected by a pedestrian bridge.

By car you are most flexible, especially if you want to drive to the spots around the field after the museum. By public transit the museum can be reached by King County Metro buses – check the current line and frequency beforehand in the trip planner. If you travel from Europe, you will probably land at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, which is only a little farther south. How to plan a whole spotting trip through the USA is in the article A plane spotting trip to the USA.

Combining: Everett, Sea-Tac and the Northwest

Seattle is Boeing country. About an hour’s drive north, at Paine Field in Everett, is the Boeing plant where the first 747 was once built – the spot there is described on the page Boeing Future of Flight in Everett. Museum of Flight and Everett together give you the path from the jumbo prototype to today’s production.

At Seattle-Tacoma Airport Alaska Airlines shapes the picture; the airline is headquartered in Seattle and belongs to Alaska Air Group. If you plan further major museums on your trip, the Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles with the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson with its huge outdoor area are the obvious destinations. The basics of spotting in the States are summarized in the article Plane spotting in the USA.

Rules in the museum and at the fence

In the museum the rule is: stay on the permitted areas, do not climb on exhibits and make room for other visitors on the narrow stairs to the cabins. Outside you are moving around an active airport. Use only public areas, do not park in driveways and set a ladder up freestanding instead of leaning it against the fence.

Conclusion

The Museum of Flight is a must-visit for every fan of airliners. The first Boeing 747, a Concorde, the first jet Air Force One and the prototypes of the 727, 737 and 787 stand here on one site – you will find this much Boeing history in the original nowhere else.

What makes the place special for spotters is the airfield next door. Instead of airliner waves there are test flights, brand-new 737s in customer colors, freighters and business jets. If you go to the museum in the morning and switch to the fence in the afternoon with the sun behind you, you get aviation history and the present in a single day.