Internship Highlights: Chris Bridgeland at The Museum of Flight

This post is part of our “Intern of the Week” highlight series written by Kelsie Luong, Class of 2028. For this spotlight, we spoke with Chris Bridgeland (Class of 2028), who is interning with Museum of Flight.

What is your internship and what do you usually do there?

• My internship is at The Museum of Flight! I spend my time teaching visitors about my favorite aircraft, the F-4 Phantom II and going on tours learning about aviation history so I can expand my knowledge. During the start of my internship I went on many tours and looked at every aircraft in the museum. After that I began script writing and came out with 3 different drafts of ways I wanted to present information. 

What is your favorite memory from your internship?

• My favorite memory of my internship was around the start when I spoke to a Boeing engineer about aircraft engines and learn so much about commercial engines in airliners and throughout history. He taught me about how to present information when speaking to some who is both knowledgeable and unknowledgeable of a topic.

What is your internship project?

• My internship project is all about speaking and engaging visitors. I wear a 1960 pilot uniform to attract attention and speak about the conditions and mindset pilots would be in before flying. I go through basic information of the aircraft to the craziest aviation story I know being, Pardo's Push where one aircraft carried another back to friendly lines after one was injured.

What challenges have you faced at your internship?

• There has been several challenges I've faced at my internship, mainly, I was working with a partner and had a large part of my script bounce off them. They ended up transferring out of the school so I had to rewrite most of it. But other than that, it's a lot of information and somedays it’s just too much and in those moments I'm glad that my internship has breaks which help with informational overload.

Why did you choose this internship?

• I chose this internship because I want to commission in the military and study history in college, and this internship was about as close as I could to both those goals as I could get. Being at this internship reaffirmed my goals towards studying history and taught me a lot about presenting.