The leaders of Seattle’s Museum of Flight see the institution not just as a place for historical artifacts, but as a catalyst for the future of aviation and space.
The museum, perched on the edge of Boeing Field, traditionally has a strong following among kids and older adults. But as officials looked at their membership, attendance, and leadership, they saw a need to engage with more people in their 20s, 30s and 40s — the generation now shaping that future.
“There’s this gap, this wedge in the middle, which is the vibrant, young heart of the city,” says Erika Wagner, business development manager at Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-backed space venture. “And we’re trying to get them more engaged.”
That’s the goal of the museum’s Future Leaders Team — abbreviated FLT, and commonly known as the “Flight Team.” It’s a volunteer group of young professionals, co-founded by Wagner and Caitlin O’Keefe, director of marketing at the Planetary Resources asteroid mining company.
The group is leading an event at the museum this weekend with space traveler Richard Garriott de Cayeux, who will announce the winners of the museum’s Flightcache Design Challenge, a contest and partnership with Geocaching.com to come up with a new geocache at the museum.
Garriott holds the distinction of hiding the universe’s highest and lowest geocaches — on the International Space Station, and deep below the North Atlantic Ocean.
The winner won’t be known until this weekend, but submissions for the geocaching contest have included everything from an Arduino-based glider that transmits the location of the cache, to a puzzle that involves turning dials in an airplane cockpit.
The event illustrates the fun approach that the group is helping to bring to the museum.
The FLT was created in 2013 after commercial pilot Anne Simpson, a retired Delta captain and vice chair of the Museum of Flight board, advocated for its creation as a way to address the generational gap. The group has since grown to more than 15 people across a variety of industries, including Boeing employees, a videographer, a lawyer, consultants, students, and sales and marketing experts.
“It’s an awesome spectrum of people,” O’Keefe said. “It’s a perfect team to get this kicked off, because we’re all filling different roles but collaborating together to make something happen.”
They’ve been quietly working with the museum, advising staff members and serving as a sounding board in areas including events, programming and social media.
“We feel very integrated in a way that is going to allow us to make a huge impact in lots of different silos of the museum, and in the community, and hopefully in the economy here someday,” said O’Keefe, a longtime fan of space and aviation who landed her job at Planetary Resources in part through connections she made serving on volunteer committees at the museum.
“I want to see the museum thrive, because to me, when the museum thrives, the economy around it thrives for aerospace,” she said.
Wagner added, “There’s the sense that when you add young enthusiasm to established wisdom, you get something really cool.”
The Museum of Flight, which has about 18,500 members, has expanded in recent years with the opening of the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, home to the Space Shuttle Trainer, and work is currently under way on a giant new addition: an Aviation Pavilion that will house more than 20 commercial and military aircraft, including the 787 Dreamliner, Air Force One, and the Concorde.
Input from the FLT “will even further strengthen the value in membership,” said Margaux Kendall, Museum of Flight corporate partnerships officer.
The museum’s annual Hops & Props event, which tends to attract a younger crowd, typically sells out quickly with little promotion, illustrating the demand for these types of activities.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED: Follow the Future Leaders Team @FLTMOF or email FLTMOF@gmail.com
As the name of the Future Leaders Team suggests, another goal is to cultivate the museum’s future leaders, creating a succession plan for the museum, with members of the FLT potentially becoming board members or staffers, or filling other roles.
“It’s a new example,” said Ted Huetter, Museum of Flight public relations manager. “It’s really important that a few folks are taking the time for it, and showing that, yes, this is an important part of your own life. You can make a difference, and you shouldn’t wait until you’re retired.”
