Visiting the Museum of Flight Restoration Center & Reserve Collection south of Everett, in Paine Field, has got to be one of the most unique, surprising, and wonderful experiences that we have had lately. Before anything, you need to clarify to yourself what this place is, exactly. It's not the Boeing assembly factory. It's not the small museum attached to the Boeing factory, either. It's not the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum, located very close to the subject of this review. And it's certainly not the big Museum of Flight located 31 miles south, in Renton.
It can be hard to keep all of these places separate, since the Seattle/Puget Sound area has a wealth of aircraft-related exhibits. The Museum of Flight Restoration Center & Reserve Collection is a small, one warehouse-sized museum, with an attached field that, at the time of our visit, had one plane on it. We paid our admission fee and were promptly met by a friendly, extremely informative docent. And here's where this museum excels: you get to go inside of a number of planes and vehicles. While the big Museum of Flight in Renton is huge and contains amazing machinery, most are all off-limits. One of the highlights of this tour was crawling up into the North American B-25 Mitchell bomber and into the front machine gun station.
This museum is not for everybody. People with small children likely will not have a positive experience, since some of the aircraft are not suited for kids of that age. Plus, while there are three flight simulator screens, the museum does not have many alternatives for small children. Instead, head down to the big Museum of Flight.
If you have a spare couple of hours and would love to enlighten yourself on a spectrum of aircraft, the Museum of Flight Restoration Center & Reserve Collection is well worth your visit. read more