William E Boeing Junior, the son of aerospace pioneer William Boeing Senior, has died at the age of 92.

Mike Bush, a spokesman for the Museum of Flight in Seattle, said Mr Boeing died at his home in Seattle last night. The cause was not immediately known.

Mr Boeing did not work at his father's company, but he was nevertheless a champion of the industry and of aerospace education.

He helped found the Museum of Flight, and Mr Bush said that in 1975 he paid to move Boeing's first factory - a red barn on Seattle's Duwamish River - to King County International Airport, where it is part of the museum.

Mr Boeing also supported the museum's educational programmes for schoolchildren, as well as Seattle Children's Hospital.