Washington Dulles International Airport is committed to making travel as enjoyable as possible for its customers of all ages. One way the busy airport accomplishes this goal is by offering a kid-friendly play area in partnership with NASA. Families traveling through Dulles can enjoy a FunWay adventure designed and manufactured by Soft Play.

The engaging and interactive NASA Kids’ FunWay play area offers aviation-themed play elements that inspire children to climb, slide, run, crawl and jump—all great ways to expend some energy before a long flight! A kid-sized statue of Orville the Squirrel, named after Orville Wright of the Wright Brothers, welcomes children as they enter the area.

Airport Play Area Entertains Children Ages 12 and Under

The centerpiece of the play area is the “Tommy Tower” air traffic control play structure with a slide, modeled after Dulles International’s historic air traffic control tower. Additional play area elements include:

Climbing elements: two “futuristic” jets, climbing luggage and tires.

Kid-friendly educational facts about aviation: one panel explains that a regular commercial passenger airplane flies about 550 miles per hour. Another diagram shows the forces guiding flight, including thrust, lift, drag and weight.

A Play Me video game console is loaded with more than 100 games in six languages that kids can play solo or together with other tweens or parents.

Not only does the play area at Dulles help kids get the wiggles out before long flights, it also caters to the needs of their guardians and older siblings. Included on the outside of the play area is a counter seating with charging ports for cell phones, tablets and laptops.

Located in Concourse B by gate B70, the Dulles Kids FunWay airport play area is open to adult-supervised children under 12 who are no taller than 42 inches. It was dedicated in 2016 by guests from NASA, a real-life Orville mascot, and students from the Winwood Children’s Center in Gainesville, Va.

A Partnership with Soft Play Exceeds Airport Goals

“We’re thrilled that Washington Dulles International Airport hired us to create a special play area for their customers,” said 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. 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.”