Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight in seattle, wa, one of the world's largest private nonprofit air and space museums, hosted more than 445,000 visitors in 2023 while being open for 362 days. The Museum had 177 full-time employees in 2023 and 617 active volunteers who contributed 70,553 hours through tours, guest lectures, and guest interactions. In striving for its vision to "inspire all through the limitless possibility of Flight..." the Museum served over 40,000 students with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (stem) disciplines. The Museum also provided over $332,000 in financial assistance and scholarships. The Museum is a smithsonian affiliate and is also accredited by the american alliance of museums. In 2023, the Museum updated its mission to focus on and emphasize the audiences it is proud to serve: the Museum of Flight is a community where we unleash the innovation, passion, and human story of Flight to unlock joy and the amazing potential in everyone. The Museum of Flight exists to: collect, preserve, and participate in the dynamic and diverse stories of aerospace; capture the awe of the past, present, and future of aviation and space for all to experience; provide innovative experiential learning opportunities for people of all ages; and create a sense of belonging and community around the shared connection to flight.the Museum displays over 175 air and spacecraft, along with artifacts showcasing aerospace history. In addition to the many permanent exhibits covering the breadth of aerospace history, the Museum provides several temporary exhibits each year showcasing a wide range of subjects. In addition to the aircraft on view, the Museum maintains the largest aeronautical library and archives open to the public on the west coast. Our world-class collection is made possible by wonderful contributions from our community and 2023 was no exception. In 2023, the Museum accessioned 1,771 donations into our collection. These included 77 new objects, uniforms, photographs, and 1,694 additions to the harl v. brackin memorial library. Additionally, the research center received and fulfilled over 803 research requests and hosted 405 visitors. The Museum's educational programs support both state and national standards, Washington state science learning standards, and common core state standards. The Museum's educator professional development programs are certified to provide clock hour credits for teachers. The Museum offered more than 20 programs and include the american camp association accredited aerospace camp experience (ace) summer camp, the nationally acclaimed challenger learning center (clc), the museum-designed aviation learning center (alc), and a wide range of distance learning programs. The Museum also hosts the Washington aerospace scholars (was), a competitive, collaborative program with nasa is privately funded and intended to keep the nation at the forefront of technical competitiveness. Additionally, the Museum's campus is home to raisbeck aviation high school, part of the highline school district with 400 students and a stem-based curriculum.