Seattle, WA
Originally King County Airport when it opened in 1928, this field has been the heart of Boeing flight test operations for nearly a century. Every Boeing prototype since the Model 247 has rolled out here. The Dash 80 (707 prototype) flew first from this field on July 15, 1954 — the 38th anniversary of Boeing's incorporation. The 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, and 787 all made their first flights from KBFI. The Museum of Flight on the southwest corner is one of the world's great aviation museums, anchored by the original 1909 Boeing Red Barn (Building No. 105) — the oldest aircraft manufacturing facility in America, barged down the Duwamish in 1975 and reassembled here. Renton (KRNT) and Everett (KPAE) handle production today, but Boeing Field is where the airplanes are tested. Class B underlies Sea-Tac just south. Heavy commercial cargo and Boeing test traffic mix with GA throughout the day.
On the southwest corner of KBFI Boeing Field. One of the world's great aviation museums and arguably the most important — its core is the 1909 Boeing Red Barn (Building No. 105), where William Boeing built his first airplane in 1916 and where Boeing the company began. The Red Barn was barged down the Duwamish in 1975 and reassembled here. Today the museum sprawls across 175,000 square feet and includes: the original Boeing 747 prototype "City of Everett" (N7470, first flown Feb 9 1969); a Boeing VC-137B that served as Air Force One for Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon; a Concorde; the Space Shuttle Full Fuselage Trainer; a Lockheed M-21 Blackbird; and a B-17 Flying Fortress. The Personal Courage Wing covers WWI and WWII fighters in depth. (The Boeing 367-80 "Dash 80" lives at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, not here.) Allow at least half a day. Crew car distance from the FBO.
Every Boeing 737 ever built came off the line here, beside Renton Municipal on the south shore of Lake Washington; more than 10,600 since 1967, the most-produced jetliner in history. The plant stands on land created when the lake was lowered about fifteen feet in 1916. During WWII it turned out B-29 Superfortresses; later the 707, 727, and 757. Today it builds the 737 MAX; a fourth line began production at Everett in July 2026.
Lake Washington carries two of the longest floating bridges on earth. The Evergreen Point Bridge on SR-520, rebuilt in 2016, is the longest at about 7,700 feet of floating span; the I-90 crossing just to the south is close behind. They float because the lake is too deep and soft-bottomed for ordinary piers, so the roadway rides on hollow concrete pontoons.
Lake Union sits right in the middle of Seattle and is one of the busiest seaplane bases in the country. Kenmore Air and others fly scheduled floatplane service from the south end of the lake out to the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, and Victoria, taking off and landing on the water with the downtown skyline behind. Floatplanes have worked off this lake since the 1940s.