The Historic Flight Foundation is an aviation museum located at Paine Field in Mukilteo, Washington. The museum collects, restores, and flies historic aircraft from the period between Charles Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic crossing in 1927 and the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 in 1957, a 30-year period when airplanes evolved from relatively simple wood and fabric biplanes to commercial jets. Each aircraft in the collection demonstrates a great leap forward in aerospace engineering and also has a compelling back story. The collection’s Douglas DC-3 was manufactured at the Douglas Aircraft Company’s Long Beach plant as one of only 300 DC-3s specifically designed to fly the hump—the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains—during World War II. The aircraft have been fully restored to flying condition, and fly regularly at monthly summer Fly Days, HFF’s September Vintage Aircraft Weekend, and Paine Field’s Aviation Day in May. The aircraft also fly at air displays throughout the Western United States and Canada. HFF hosts educational programs throughout the year. This includes a STEM program for primary through high school students, historic airplane ground schools, and flight training in historic aircraft. Speakers from HFF’s Speaker's Bureau regularly present educational programs about aviation topics and airplanes in the collection. HFF also restores historic aircraft to flying condition. Some of this restoration work is done in-house at HFF’s hangar where visitors can watch as the work is performed. Other restoration work is done by outside organizations that specialize in restoration of specific aircraft types. Two of Historic Flight's aircraft won awards for their restoration work at the National Aviation Heritage Invitational at the California Capital Airshow in September 2017.
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