Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

We were excited to visit this museum. The proprietor greeted us with a friendly smile and guided us through the exhibit of aviation history. I previously posted my photos on another museum.

This museum is awesome! Took our 11 year old to do research for a scout project on inventors. Lots of great history on aviation, the invention and development of the iron lung, and other inventors. Make sure to pick up your scavenger hunt at the front desk, which adds a lot to the experience

Small museum. A bit too hot. But we enjoyed our visit.

This place is actually pretty incredible. I highly recommend stopping in for a visit.

The wife and I both enjoyed our visit.

I had an incredible experience exploring this hidden gem! The curator's kindness and expertise made the visit truly memorable. Huge gratitude to the Bird Family for generously sharing their treasures with our community.

Great place to visit. Very Happy after wanting to go for several years we finally made it there. Enjoyed the video that they played for us there. Definitely recommend!!!

Drove my airplane fanatic child 30 miles to see because their hours said they were open, nope, they were not. Thanks for updating your holiday hours online.

Was great to take the kids when STEM bus was there!

Everyone has to understand the significance of this man's life and his creation!

I only wish I had had more time to spend in this place. Will definitely return when I'm in the area. The museum staff was very knowledgeable and friendly. Thank you for a wonderful experience.

If you are a military history buff, I highly recommend it.

Love coming here and looking at everything. They have a surprisingly large amount of things to look at for the size of the place. There is a gift shop up front too.

Lots of information on aviation and interesting things, life sized plane models and other stuff,

This was a birthday surprise for my daughter and she loved it

My grandchildren enjoyed it as did my children and my husband and I.

If you like aviation, its a cool little sight to see with family or friends. They also have a little gift shop with a bunch of cool stuff inside.

Cool and amazing place. Wonderful employees. I loved the old place better. Because it was actually on a airport and it was bigger. The new place is cool it is smaller but it is still a pretty good museum. It is interesting and most importantly historical.

Cool little museum, very friendly group of people. We drove up when the airport security closed the gate. Just call the museum and they’ll give you a code to get in

Great vintage aviation museum. Bring the entire family.

Great museum. Jam packed with history

Great and Interesting place Staff and owner are awesome!!! Worth the visit.

Absolutely a wonderful place to see amazing artifacts in aviation. Please take the time to see this place. Rachel Schwan is a fabulously nice owner.

Very awesome place to visit if you have never seen this amazing aviation museum!

Best part was watching airplanes land and take off at airfield right outside. Really interesting though.

Very nice small museum. Our two grandchildren (3yrs & 5) were a lil too young but really enjoyed the hands on room upstairs where they got to play with electro magnets!! A lot of history in one aircraft hanger!!! Fun!

Great Museum! I found the story of Dr. Birds life very inspirational. Thanks to Buck who was our guide. Very kid friendly.

I thought it would be boring average mesuem, if you thought so you're wrong. This has got everything you could imagine. From motorbikes to planes, to rockets to... Respirators? There's so much cool stuff here I would highly recommend it since there's not much else to do in Idaho.

Good place to see panes that were flown by Mr. Bird. All were well maintained. Museum was awesome.

Small museum packed with some beautiful airworthy aircraft, cars, invention stuff, and more.

Very friendly tour guide, some great items

Great place for mothers birthday will come agian!

Amazing inventions and wonderful staff. This place is jam packed with inspiration and kids love it!

Unfortunately, was closed due to u-no-what. But locals had much positive to say.

A 'hidden gem' of the Idaho Panhandle! 🛩️ You must visit The Bird Aviation & Respiratory Museum at The Pappy Boyington Air Field in Hayden, ID. Use GPS to access the museum as it's tucked away on the airport's property and is tricky to find. Not only does this have Dr. Forrest Bird's world-renowned respirators, but his: planes; other inventors inventions; his wife's aviation history; Model A & T; vintage WWII memorabilia: A NASA section, an Amilia Earhart and many other EXTREMELY interesting exhibits. Very family friendly. 👍 There is so much to take in--either spend several hours, revisit it again at another date or take pics of the placards and blow them up and read them on your phone. 🤔😉 They take donations for visiting the museum and have complimentary, cookies and treats for everyone. 🍪😊

Excellent museum and experience for the entire family! A must see for inventing & flying enthusiast. Keeping science and inventing alive!

Fascinating pieces of history. Beautiful airplanes. All tucked in by the Hayden airport!

Dr. Bird was a curious inventor who saved and improved many lives. Museum is a tribute to those who served in WWII and inventors through time. Super interesting.

Beautiful collection of mostly WWII era aircraft. Right on the taxiway at Felts Field. A must visit for aircraft enthusiasts.

This museum may appear small but it has so much to offer! The staff is super friendly and very knowledgeable, we learned sp much about Dr.Bird, inventors, and aviation history! Although this is a free museum, if you can I highly recommend donating to the museum during your vist. Anything helps and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated. This museum is certainly a hidden jem! Also, almost all of the aircraft and vehicles are still driven and flown. We are already looking forward to another visit!

Very friendly staff and fun experience.

Dr Bird was an interesting man. Aircraft collection as well as other inventions.

Fun, small museum. It is just enough information to get out and stretch your legs. Love the children’s scavenger hunt and gift shop. It is actually located on a runway and surrounded by hangers. Planes were coming in and taking off while we were there.

It's hard to believe but Cpaps and ventilators were perfected in my lifetime by this man in lowly Idaho. Before this, people just died when they couldn't breath

This Museum is absolutely amazing, even the kids had a blast. The tour guide (Buck Bender) is a pilot & flew in Vietnam. He is a wealth of information. The museum is named after the inventor of the respirator amongst other inventions. His daughter works there, and was born premature, she was on the respirator that her dad invented. There is a section from NASA donated by an astronaut that lives in Sandpoint, Idaho. And, there is also a section devoted to Women in aerospace, known as the WASP'S. You need a few hours to take it all in, we will be going back!

My kids said this museum was great! They were inspired by the contents and encouraged in the area of exploring and inventing 🤩. They want to go back.

Awesome museum, awesome people.

My husband and I were delighted to find this fascinating museum. It is a family owned museum with very knowledgeable volunteers. We got a personalized tour by Dr. Birds son in law. The exhibits are exceptional. Well worth the trip.

We were greeted by a very friendly staff and tour guide. Great experience with my kids! The day involved a scavenger hunt; my kids 6, 9, and 12 year old enjoyed the search while learning about the history. Then they got surprises at the end for doing the challenges! Lovely little museum and a must see!

Awesome experience. Quite the hidden gem in the gem state.

Fantastic small museum with a great family atmosphere. We had a great time.

The museum is a fantastic place to learn the history of Dr. Bird. The staff are friendly, Informative and professional. Our presentor Larry was fantastic to our group. I recommend this museum to anyone to visit.

Tons of aviation history and information. Our family enjoyed it very much.

A fascinating figure tied to North Idaho is the inventor and aviator Forrest Bird (1921-2015) who lived not far away in Sagle. A technical training officer in WWII, Bird embarked on a career inventing respirators and ventilators for the medical industry after finding a German oxygen regulator in the war and working out how to make it more functional. The Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center is in a hangar at Coeur d’Alene Airport and has a rotating fleet of aircraft from before WWI to the present day. To name a few there’s a 1947 Republic RC-7 “Sea Bee”, a North American AT-6 similar to the one Forrest flew in his WWII days and a 1927 WACO model GXE-10, like the one in which he made his first solo flight at the age of just 14. These aircraft are accompanied by exhibits about Bird’s medical inventions, as well as famous innovations in general, like Ruth Handler’s Barbie and the Mac II, mostly by Steve Woznia

Very interesting, lots of history, great examples of his inventions and his planes

Really cool museum. Its small, but packed with artifacts and displays on both military and general aviation. Worth the trip. A person reading every display would probably spend 90 to 120 minutes in the museum.

Great museum experience for all ages! We took our 4 year old and 10 year old granddaughter and we all enjoyed it!

Smaller museum with a big imprint! Had a surprising array of flight memerabelia. My husband, a veteran, and I could have spent hours but had the grandkids and they went through pretty quick, and they loved the planes! Can't believe how many were in there! Has a great little gift shop and the people were very nice. The lady in the gift shop was especially nice. She let the grandkids who are two and four color with her kids while we power shopped. Nicest kid friendly museum ever! Will go back again! Prices in gift shop were reasonable, and museum access was donation based. Hoping to go back again soon both with the grandkids who can't stop talking about it and with my husband and I who can enjoy the delightful little finds along the way!

This place was Fabulous. The volunteers could not have been more welcoming & knowledgeable! So many interesting exhibits not to mention the Beautif aircraft! A must see!

Affordable. Educational. Friendly & helpful staff (volunteers?). Great little gift shop. Hope to see an expansion with more of the collection. Plan on spending some time to read all the history included with the exhibits.

Broad-ranging collections of air and space, military, and medical artifacts, as well as original patent documents and models dating back to the 1800s. Absolutely worth the trip.

It's great, informational, and great staff!

It was awesome, the people there really make the museum!! They are polite informative, knowledgeable and have a personal interest in the history they are trying to convey! My kids really had fun in the inventors/science part! So cool!

Friendy staff and a few planes on display, with other related displaies, flying tigers, black sheep squadron, and a lot more.

Always interesting new additions that cover a wide range of history and innovation. A great venue for corporate events and birthdays as well. Have visited with my kids who enjoyed the simulator kids area and just recently returned to the venue for a surprise birthday party.

This museum has a great amount of information about Mr . Bird. Go see the planes, learn about Mr. Bird. He was quite a man and saved many lives.

This is great place to learn. There are aircraft and other items of historical value. Even our kids found something to entertain them.

Knowledgeable staff and very informative. Also facility is immaculate

Great museum extremely knowledgeable staff.. will definitely go back

This place is amazing. The people are very friendly.

Very fun and informative. The inventions were an interesting find. The books in the gift store are worth a look at.

This is a great place to take the family! Come see some truly unique aircraft and learn about a great Man.

An interesting little museum located at KCOE. Lots of interesting exhibits with accompanying history.

Awesome place and everyone was super friendly

Very nice little avaition museum with collection of historic stuff. Totally awesome stagerwing Beach.y

We were impressed from the moment we walked through the doors. If you love aviation, inventions, military memorabilia, this is a must-see museum. It is a jewel like you cannot believe, especially for a private collection. Chock full of history, this is one of the places we always take visitors. Great for all ages.

This is an extraordinary museum set in a beautiful location.

Outstanding place to visit. A wealth of information. Very well displayed. The staff is outstanding. The scenery outside is amazing. If you're a Respiratory Therapist or an aviation buff this is the place to go. This man was amazing and had an amazing life. You have to visit this place at least once in your life.

The Bird Aviation Museum is a place to see in a persons lifetime the place is incredible Dr.Forrest and Pamela Bird pull out all the stops people are VERY informed and FRIENDLY and can answer any questions you or your children can ask . Thank You Dr.Bird for everything you did for everybody in this world.:-)

Really enjoyable, we bring friends often

It super for the kid and Even I enjoyed it!!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😂

Love this place! My whole family young and old enjoy going here! I enjoy it so much I got married here, the staff is awesome! They are very helpful and nice people. My husband and I will be visiting again soon!

My family and I spent half the day at the Bird Aviation Museum and thoroughly enjoyed our visit while just briefly overviewing all of the exhibits there. There's so much to see! There's vintage aircraft (all in working order) World War II memorabilia, and of course all manner of inventions, both Dr. Bird's, and others'. I don't know where else I might find an Apple II signed by Steve Wosniak, a Gibson guitar signed by Les Paul, or exhibits of patents from the 1800s to present. All were presented by knowledgeable docents. We were pleasantly surprised to see "Doc" (Dr. Forrest M. Bird) greeting visitors and got to speak with him! All of the exhibits were first class. There's a gift shop with a wide variety of things for purchase, and the cafeteria smelled incredible! I'm sorry that we missed partaking there! This is the kind of museum that we've been looking for, both for ourselves and to have on our list of "must see" places to take folks that visit so that we can proudly show off our new home. We'll be back to spend more time to more fully review the exhibits!

Awesome place! The people here are great, very friendly, and the cafe is yummy!