SEATTLE — After 26 years of open storage at Paine Field, Everett, the Museum of Flight‘s 1959 Boeing B-52 bomber will be moved to the museum’s West Campus at Boeing Field in Seattle in early June.
Not flight worthy, the plane was disassembled for shipment and most of the parts were recently delivered to the museum. The project’s grand finale will be June 2-3, 2018, when the final sections — (two 100′ wings and the 170’ fuselage — will be trucked on separate flatbeds to Boeing Field.
The plane will be restored and put on permanent display in a new exhibit, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park, opening this fall.
To minimize traffic congestion during the 40-mile journeys on I-405 and I-5 freeways, the large, eye-catching cargo will make the two-hour trip between midnight and 4 a.m.
The wings arrive first. The fuselage will be trucked on June 3, and will be staged near its destination so the public can join in a welcoming celebration in the Museum’s Aviation Pavilion at 8 a.m., when its drive will be completed in view of fans, veterans, and City of Tukwila officials.
The outdoor welcoming is free, and the museum will open for business an hour early-9 a.m. with free admission to U.S. veterans.