What's on at Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Latest from the museum
Birthday Parties
Mission: Best birthday ever
Zip up a flight suit, grab your dog tags, and dive into a fully hosted birthday “mission”. From air & sea adventures for preschoolers to rescue and cadet challenges for older children. Our Programmes team runs the activities, the children get awesome photo moments (and party bags), and you can add catering through our café.
Book a birthday party
Latest Exhibition
Victory!
It is 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
Our Victory exhibition, upstairs in the atrium, marks this significant milestone in world history, and the story of the RNZAF.
Victory includes images and memories of Victory in Europe (VE) Day and Victory over Japan (VJ) Day which have been sourced from photographs, letters, postcards and personal histories in our collection.
Victory includes insights into how Kiwis celebrated, and how they felt.
Many found it difficult to rejoice after so much loss and suffering.
You’re welcome to come along and learn all about the end of World War Two with us.
Exhibition
The Mighty Hercules
The Mighty Hercules exhibition is on in the Cochrane Gallery upstairs in our atrium. Come and visit and learn all about this extraordinary aircraft.
Learn More
Update
Overseas visitor charge
A $15 entry charge was introduced for all international visitors to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand from 31 March 2025. Tickets available online or from our Welcome Desk on arrival.
The charge is required to cover rising costs and to contribute to our new $20 million extension to house the newest members of our collection – our historic Hercules and Orion aircraft.
Learn More
Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
CONGRATULATIONS SARGE! It was a proud day for our team member Sergeant Zach Hollis and his family last week when he was presented with the New Zealand General Service Medal (Korea) by Deputy Chief of Air Force Air Commodore Peter Gibson.
Sergeant Hollis earned the medal in 2024 when he was posted aboard HMNZS Aotearoa during an 'Operation Whio' three-month patrol.
The Aotearoa patrolled off the coast of the Korean Peninsula where North Korea and South Korea are technically still at war after 76 years. The Aotearoa was there to detect and deter evasions of United Nations Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea.
At the time he was an aircraft technician, looking after a No. 6 Squadron Kaman Seasprite aboard the Aotearoa.
Zach has served in the RNZAF for 12 years, including six years with No. 6 Squadron at Whenuapai.
He joined our museum team as an RNZAF reservist last year and his skills are a great addition to our Peter Adamson Conservation Centre team.
He’s currently working on a Tiger Moth – which is a wee bit different to keeping a
Seasprite serviceable on a long patrol 9,600km from home in the world’s never-ending war zone!
No less stressful though – Tiger Moths are tricky beasts.
Zach is pictured with Air Commodore Gibson, his wife Charlie and his parents Joce and Kit.
#rnzaf #operationwhio #kamanseasprite #no6squadronrnzaf ... See MoreSee Less
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Congratulations Zach! Well deserved x
Well done Zach!!
YOU CAN'T PARK THERE MATE! Back in 1971, Bell 47G Sioux NZ3711 got a bit too close with its rotor blade when it parked beside a shed at Waiouru.
The pilot and passenger were unharmed, the Sioux and the shed were not so lucky. The Sioux, which was just one year old at the time, was judged to be a write-off after the flames were dous#youcantparktheremateemate ... See MoreSee Less
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The day the shed got a name as Jamieson Shed.
So many stories (Yarns) flew around about this when I was a young troopie. One was he tried to fly it inside the shed and turn it around.. Cool story....at the time.
Jamieson shed
Whoops, bugga, good work no one was hurt
Pilot K F Byrne ????
Sadly Lt/Col Michael McRobie Jameson passed away at the end of 2022. He was a cousin of my wife. Never got to meet him - would have loved to know about his time with the Air Cavalry in Vietnam.
Tis but a scratch….
You know who was flying that Sioux? M McR Jameson!
That's not gone well...
Always wondered why it was called Jamieson Shed.
Attended that drom tankie barracks. Heard bell 47 fly over, then when it hit the training shelter. Might have gotten away with it except the rotor struck a steel girder having sliced through the aluminum cladding, that threw the tail rotor in to the wall. Caught fire . Hovered a little too close
There were several stories about how this crash occured. One was that the pilot was tired of having to push the helicopter into the hanger after each flight. He carefully measured the rotars and the dimensions of the hanger and determined that there was enough room to fly the chopper inside. It turned out not to be a working proposition. He managed to escape from the wreck, and ran all the way down to the fire station to report it. Though the photos do suggest it was well outside the building when it crashed.
I saw the wreck as I was doing National Service. Our barracks were behind that shed. Must have been October or November.
A lucky escape for both crew. Neil Blackford ??? Was the passenger if I recall correctly.
We were tasked with pushing arriving sioux into the hangar and watched as this prang occurred. A sheet of cardboard flew up in front of the machine and appeared to distract the pilot. One of our brightest ran down to the fire station passing one or two fire boxes on the way. Wouldnt have made much difference. I have some good colour slides of the fire somewhere.
OC 1 MP Pl ,Papakura, tried hard not to talk about it. Amazing boss, great guy, RIP.
Only a year old?
Can only imagen the writers cramp from the pages of please explain reports
Carlos Robertson
Butch's mistake.
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COOPED UP: Imagine you’re about 10 years old in the early 1980s and you’re looking for somewhere to play with your mates after school in a rural part of North Otago.
If you’re Richard Carter you sneak down the road to your neighbour’s place at Totara, where there’s a spare Lockheed Hudson sitting in a field.
Richard has been reunited with that Hudson after 43 years – and it is fair to say it is looking a bit better than the last time he saw it.
Our Hudson, NZ2013, was manufactured by Lockheed in California in 1941 and served in the Pacific during World War Two.
By 1948 it was surplus to requirements and somehow or other ended up working as a chicken coop at Totara, south of Oamaru.
That’s where Richard and his mates found it and climbed aboard.
“To us it was a just a big plane – we could climb in and pull on the levers and play around. We didn’t realise its significance until later.’’
The Hudson was a chicken coop and a shed until it was purchased by us, with fundraising assistance from No. 26 Oamaru Squadron Air Training Corps in 1985.
After nine years of painstaking restoration work, NZ2013 went in display in 1996 wearing its No. 4 Squadron colour scheme from its service in Fiji in 1943.
The pictures show its recovery and progress over the years.
Thanks for visiting Richard – your playground is safe with us!
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I had a similar experience in the 1980s, when I was 11yrs old i started as a volunteer at MOTAT and spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the aviation park around their Hudson 2031, I later gained my pilots license and still dream of flying a Hudson one day which is highly unlikely but anyway.
remember seeing it as a kid when we moved to DN-DN early 60s
Remember stopping to visit very well . Every trip south she was a highlight
26 Squadron ATC represent! 😊
As a kid it was always the highlight of a trip down highway 1 to spot the Hudson out the window as we passed, I always wanted to play in that chicken coop... and the Vampire that was at Cave! So great to see them both restored!
It was always a highlight for us as kids to spy this plane/chicken coop on our trips to Christchurch. I was so pleased to see that it survived the poop and had been restored.
A chicken coop? Weird! 🐔
One photo shows the plane on the west side of main road and the truck is coming out from the east side was it moved from one side to the other??
How'd you sort the wings and all other missing stuff?
Just curious. Where were all the Hudson parts (including wings, etc.) acquired?
Is it airworthy? Has anyone actually flown the coop?
Always tried to be the first to spot it when we drove South of Oamaru
My cousin Flt Lt Max McCormick flew Hudsons from Henderson Field. He was credited with the 1st air to air kill in the Pacific and MD when he shot down a Japanese Kawasaki reconnaisance aircraft.
Remember it well sitting at Jim Cark's at Totara when I was young.
So where is it now?
Love background stories.
Good to see well done to all involved.
Wonderful restoration. I'm another who scrambled around inside that chicken coop. Nearby, at the time, was a Mosquito fuselage that was also full of chicken left-overs. It is now being restored at Ferrymead. A Mosquito engine – Rolls Royce Merlin – was also on the farm, under a lean-to. It is now displayed in the car museum in the Wool Store building, Oamaru.
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