Washington Dulles International Airport, in partnership with NASA, is making travel even more enjoyable for its customers. Families traveling through Dulles International can take off on their very own “FunWay” adventure in a new children’s airport play area designed and manufactured by Soft Play.

The Kids’ FunWay is engaging, interactive and offers aviation-themed play elements that encourage children to climb, slide, run, crawl and jump. A kid-sized statue of Orville the Squirrel, named after Orville Wright of the Wright Brothers, welcomes children as they enter.

Orville the Squirrel welcomes kids as they enter the Dulles International Airport NASA Kid’s FunWay play area.

The airport says the “centerpiece” of the play area is the “Tommy Tower” air traffic control play structure with a slide, that’s modeled after Dulles International’s historic air traffic control tower. Additional play area elements include two “futuristic” jets, climbing luggage and tires.


The futuristic NASA-branded play plane and Tommy Tower mini air traffic control tower play structure are highlights of the new airport new play area at Washington Dulles. 

Aviation-Themed Kids’ FunWay Airport Play Area Entertains Children Ages 12 and Under

The walls of the play area are decorated with “kid-friendly educational facts about airplanes and aviation.” There’s also a Play Me video game console loaded with more than 100 games in six languages that kids can play solo or together with other kids and parents to compete in two person game play.


Kids, tweens and teens enjoy playing video games on the Play Me wall-mounted video game console, as they wait to depart on their flights at Washington Dulles International Airport.

The Dulles Kids FunWay airport play area is located in Concourse B by gate B70 – is open to adult-supervised children under 12 and no taller than 42 inches.

The airport play area was dedicated on Aug. 19, 2016 and joined by guests from NASA, a real-life Orville mascot, and students from the Winwood Children’s Center in Gainesville, Va.

The Soft Play business development team attended the ribbon-cutting and celebration at the Washington Dulles airport play area’s grand opening.

“We’re thrilled that Washington Dulles International Airport hired us to create a special play area for their customers, reported the business development team at Soft Play. “We worked with them every step of the way to ensure we met all of their goals for the play area. They were really dedicated to providing a state-of-the-art play area that was fun and safe for children. They didn’t forget about the parents or other travelers passing through; included on the outside of the play area is a counter seating with charging ports for cell phones, tablets and laptops.”

“We encourage all airports to review their customer service goals and to contact us to see how we can help them meet and exceed those goals. We’ve been dedicated to doing just that for over 15 years and you can find our airport play areas all over the world including: Detroit Metropolitan AirportLAX International AirportBoston Logan International Airport, Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower International Airport, Minot International AirportBeijing International Airport,” added Soft Play.

The NASA supported Kid’s FunWay educational play area at Washington Dulles International includes educational fun facts panels on the walls of the enclosed play space.



Photo credits: All photography by J. David Buerk for Washington Dulles International.
www.jdavidbuerk.com
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