Sunday, April 8, 2018

Boeing's Museum of Flight - WWI

Albatross DVa
Having been a supporting member of the Museum of Flight for more than a dozen years, I finally paid my first visit to this wonderful aviation museum while stationed in Seattle this past week.  I regularly travel to the Puget Sound for work and a recent office relocation took me only a few blocks from the Museum of Flight.  With time on my hand, I stopped in for a three hour visit on a Sunday afternoon.

While the museum has aircraft from all eras, on this visit, most of my time was spent in the WWI wing of the museum.  With my resurgent interest in WWI aerial combat, why not take this opportunity to examine some of these famous aircraft up close?  I could not resist.

Below are a selection of photos from the WWI wing of the museum.  The display is dark thus some of the photos are not as photogenic as expected.  A wonderful display, nevertheless.      
Aviatik DI
Caproni Ca 20
Fokker DRI Triplane
Fokker DRI Triplane
Fokker DVII
Fokker DVII Lozenge pattern
Fokker DVIII
Fokker Eindecker
Nieuport 24bis
Nieuport 24bis
Nieuport 27
SE5
Sopwith Camel
Sopwith Pup
Sopwith Triplane
Sopwith Triplane
Sopwith Triplane
SPAD XIII
SPAD XIII

28 comments:

  1. Fantastic! Thank You for a photos sir!

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  2. Is a game of Canvas Eagles in the wings? Excuse the pun.

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    1. If not a game, it certainly provides motivation for getting another kit into the build/paint queue!

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  3. Now that is a fine collection of beautiful aircraft.

    Thank you for sharing Jonathan

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Very fine collection, indeed! Also in among the static displays are two WWI aerial combat flight simulators. That looked like fun!

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  4. Excellent. Thanks for this - great pics. I may get sent to Seattle myself this year, so will have to pay a visit.

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    1. First rate display, for sure! If you are in Seattle and have time, the MoF is recommended.

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  5. That's a great find, Jon! The planes look tiny in person, I bet.

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    1. Scott, the Aviatik and the Sopwith Triplane looked bigger than I expected. The Nieuports were small.

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  6. Geeze, I lived in Tacoma, WA, for four years and didn’t even know this museum existed. Of course, that was some time ago (84-89), so I’ll console myself by assuming that it hadn’t yet come into existence. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Ed, next time you are in the Puget Sound, put this on your list of things to do.

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  7. Awesome, Jonathan! I recognized the Albatross in the first image immediately. It'd be great if you could make it there for the annual game day.

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  8. Jonathan I agree this is a wonderful place. On one of my visits to Seattle, Boeing held the conference dinner there so I had about four hours wandering about and looking at the exhibits when I probably should have been building relationships with other convention attendees. It was a great evening.

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    1. Mark, I would do the same as you and spend my evening wandering the museum; after dinner of course!

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  9. Brilliant! Thanks for sharing Jonathan

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    1. Roy, with your project, I figured you might interest in this.

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  10. What a cool museum! That would make a very nice day to spend looking around.

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    1. Indeed! This is only a small sampling of what is on display. The collection is overwhelming.

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  11. These WW 1 planes just have a romance about them that later aircraft lack... at least for me!

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  12. Awesome planes and wonderful photos, great post, I'm jealous!

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  13. Awesome update. Its been years since I've visited there. If you get a chance the National Air and Space Museum ANNEX near Dulles Airport has a large collection including Eddie Rickenbacker's a/c.

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    1. I would enjoy seeing Rickenbacker's aircraft and the ANNEX. I vaguely recall reading his biography as a young lad when I had a big interest in both auto racing and WWI air combat.

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