Inside the Hangar Flight Museum
When the Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary reached out, the brief was refreshingly simple — smiling faces, curious kids, families genuinely having a great time during their summer programming when several historic aircraft are opened up for visitors to climb inside. My favorite kind of shoot.
If you haven't been, the space alone is worth the trip. Aircraft from floor to ceiling, biplanes and fighters suspended overhead, everything set inside a beautiful timber-framed hangar with warm wood trusses and light pouring through high windows. The red-and-white Luscombe hanging from the rafters stopped me cold the moment I walked in. I stood there and looked up for a solid minute before I got to work.
The cockpit access is where the real magic happened. Kids absolutely lit up the moment they climbed in and got their hands on the controls — one boy maybe five or six years old, sitting in the green-quilted seat of a historic bomber with both hands on the yoke and the biggest grin I've seen all year, completely convinced he was about to take off. A girl standing in the aisle of a vintage passenger aircraft with her arms spread wide, owning the whole cabin. Two kids side by side in a flight deck, one laughing, one focused — completely unposed and completely perfect.
The parent-and-child moments were equally strong. A dad helping his toddler up the yellow stairs of a trainer aircraft, that tiny kid in linen overalls taking one careful step at a time. That same toddler held in his dad's arms, reaching out to touch a wooden propeller with one curious finger. The wonder on that kid's face was something I won't forget.
What struck me most was how little direction anyone needed. The museum creates the conditions for genuine curiosity, and my job was just to be ready when it happened — four kids sprawled on the floor building paper planes with real aircraft looming behind them, two brothers striking their best cool-guy poses in front of a bright yellow Harvard trainer, a group of kids peering over vintage airline seats with foam planes raised in the air like they were already airborne.
The Hangar Flight Museum doesn't just display history. It makes kids want to be part of it. And that makes for incredible photographs.
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Photography by Leah Flores · leahfloresphoto.com Shot on location at the Hangar Flight Museum, Calgary, Alberta — thehangarmuseum.ca
