Growing Flying Heritage Collection now has a new name

EVERETT — The Flying Heritage Collection is expanding and has a new name. It is now the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum.

The planned addition of a third hangar at its Paine Field location and the name change are both driven by the museum’s evolution since opening in 2008.

The museum started with a handful of war planes — nearly all painstakingly restored to their original working condition. Its collection, which is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has more than doubled since then. Today, it has 45 war machines: 26 aircraft and 19 tanks, vehicles and guns. Most are from the World War II era.

The new hangar will allow the museum to put even more artifacts on display. Currently, a Goodyear FG-1D Corsair fighter plane is being restored for the museum and is expected to be ready to go on display as early as this year.

“Since its opening in 2008, our mission has been to offer visitors unique ways to explore and examine history, which we’ve accomplished by providing firsthand experiences with the world’s finest collection of flying aircraft,” said Adrian Hunt, the museum’s executive director. “We’re thrilled to evolve the brand to reflect our ever-growing collection of planes, tanks and artifacts.”

The museum plans to break ground this year on a 30,816-square-foot hangar. Its two current hangars occupy about 57,000 square feet.

The museum plans to show off one of its new finds in May during its annual Tankfest event: a restored Churchill tank. The vehicle was used by British forces during World War II.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dcatchpole.

This story has been modified to correctly reflect the model of fighter that the museum is restoring.