Heritage Flight Museum

Heritage Flight Museum occupies a working corner of Skagit Regional Airport, where active runways frame a collection dedicated to keeping historic military aviation in motion rather than in storage. Founded in 1996 by the family of Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, the museum reflects a perspective shaped by both Cold War service and the early space age, emphasizing the continuum from wartime aviation to the era of manned spaceflight. Its relocation from Bellingham to Burlington in 2013 marked a deliberate investment in more expansive hangar and ramp space, allowing aircraft to be maintained and flown in their intended environment. For military history enthusiasts, the significance lies in the engineering and operational focus: preservation is approached as an ongoing readiness problem—airframes, engines, and systems are kept serviceable, not merely cosmetically restored. Set amid the broader network of Puget Sound coastal defenses and airfields, the museum anchors regional military heritage in the air domain, illustrating how postwar aviation technology, training practices, and veteran experience continue to shape public understanding of 20th-century conflict and its hardware.