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
BUFFALO DEFENCE: The stubby little aircraft in the picture is a Brewster Buffalo, the frontline fighter to defend Singapore and Malaya against overwhelming Japanese forces in 1942.
History has not been kind to the Buffalo.
Variously described as 'obselete and pathetic', the Buffalo suffered from inadequate armament and armour, protection for the pilot, poor high-altitude performance, engine overheating problems, and maintenance issues.
Nevertheless, Commonwealth pilots did their best with a difficult aircraft, and the credit for the first Japanese aircraft to be shot down over Singapore was shared by two RNZAF Buffalo pilots.
You can learn all about this extraordinary chapter in our history in our 'Against the rising sun' talk by Research Curator Simon Moody, this Saturday, 9 May at 10am.
This talk is FREE and part of our regular ShorShort Talk: Facing the rising sunom/share/18esU4iwi7/ ... See MoreSee Less
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MYSTERY OBJECT COMPETITION WINNER! Come on down @shanebuildsplans on Instagram and Phillip Harrall on Facebook, winners of our latest mystery object competition.
The mystery object (which was no mystery to Shane and Phillip and a number of our readers) is an antenna from our Westland Wasp HAS.1 helicopter.
Dishonourable mentions go to Graeme Thompson (no, it is not a 'Doohickey') and Geoff Busby (no, it is not a 'red and white stripy thing') but Shane and Phillip had science and engineering on their side with their answers.
They win Air Force Museum of New Zealand roundel mugs. They are round with roundels and have regularly topped the World's Most Desirable Coffee Mug list*.
Our winners can email communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz and we will fire up the Tiger Moth and fly the mugs out, weather permitting.
PS: This one sent us down many rabbit holes, most notably one labelled Luneberg Lens.
After poring through our Wasp documentation we found it listed as an antenna-radome or an I-band transponder.
Well done to our winners. Tougher competition coming up!
*The annual World's Most Desirable Coffee M#mysteryobjectli#wedonthaveacluey#impossiblepuzzleonthaveaclue #impossiblepuzzle ... See MoreSee Less
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I still stand by my comment 🤣
URGENT CLARIFICATION: It has come to our attention there is a large amount of confusion out there about the differences between a Westland Wasp and a tea trolley, and we need to set the record straight.
This confusion is not surprising. At first glance they are not dissimilar. Both are capable of hovering for long periods, have four articulating wheels and have important – and some would argue critical – missions to complete.
The confusion is not helped by members of the South African Air Force who insist on referring to Wasps as tea trolleys.
So, we are stepping in to clear up and confusion with one of our handy three-step identification guides.
The first – and probably easiest way – to tell these doppelgangers apart is by their torpedo-carrying capability.
The Westland Wasp was armed with a General Electric Mk. 44 torpedo with a 34kg warhead. They could also be armed with MK. II depth charges for good measure.
While tea trolleys could be loaded with potentially fatal doses of digestive biscuits, they sadly lacked the capability to mount a Mk. 44 torpedo or depth charges. They did not pack a punch, although they could probably carry punch. Not the same thing though!
The second difference is in the locomotion department. Powered by a 710-horsepower Rolls-Royce Nimbus, the spritely Wasp could manage a respectable 193km/h in a straight line.
We have experimented with our standard museum-issue tea trolley, powered by a single volunteer, and they top out at a stately 5km/h, depending on the volunteer’s mood.
Finally, and most critically, the Wasp was cleverly designed with cabin bulges in its passenger cabin to be able to accommodate a stretcher sideways across its beam in an emergency.
A tea trolley, while robust, did not make for a comfortable casualty stretcher mount – even if the stretcher was adjusted to a north-south mounting position rather than beam across.
So, there you have it.
Never confuse your Wasp with a tea trolley again.
You’re welcome.
#urgentclarification ... See MoreSee Less
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Have you considered that the tea trolley is lacking armament? The lower tier shelves could be stocked with depth charges instead of extra tea 'n biscuits. 🤷♂️
In HMS Endurance Antarctic colours, now there's an angry-looking tea trolley !
This is so funny. But there's a dark side...the tea trolley was done away with back in the late 70s or early 80s. And what a shame it could never carry a Mk 4 torpedo to eliminate trolley hoggers.😁
No digestive biccies on this one, defence budget cuts perhaps…
But do they sound different?
I am able to sleep tonight now, thanks for clearing that mystery up 🤣
More like a Yellow legged Hornet!
Does the Wasp serve coffee (flat white, no sugar) and toffee pops? If not, then I would have to go with the other one.
I was fossicking around in a scrap yard in the early 1990s when I spotted the tail assembly of a Wasp (complete with roundel) on top of a pile of other military bits and pieces. I asked the scrap yard owner what he wanted for it... he gave me a fairly high price, but not stupidly high... I thought about it overnight, and went back to grab it. It was gone...the scrappy said that the Navy had suddenly realised that they couldn't replace what they had dumped and had bought it back for a lot more than he had asked for from me !
Hey Air Force Museum of New Zealand can you enlighten the viewers about the RAF Queen Mary and the RMS Queen Mary?
Brilliant - sorry for creating the confusion, I enjoyed this one!
Who writes this stuff? Pure gold!!
Thank you for the clarification. Whilst the tea trolley does not pack a punch. The individual conveying it around was certainly capable of packing a punch.
I cannot unsee this now. Especially "Tea Trolley" with a Soud Ifriken ikksent....
The joe trolley and parafin parrot Mk-1.
Best one yet hahaha
I seem to remember our Wasp's had a list painted on the side of various fuels which the engine could be run on and some of these were alcoholic spirits like Whisky. This could easily transform to something which it and the Tea Trolley have in common. Perhaps someone from the museum (Nathan Bosher) could place a copy of the fuel list here as I was always amused by it.
tea trolley is more useful and probably more powerful and cheaper to repair. To repair at westland needed a blank cheque
Onboard HMNZS Wellington
Both look a bit cluttered lol.
Hehe. Very good Sir
Fun fact: I have the same amount of time logged in both!
Another fabulous clear up again, thank you. Greetings from Sweden.
Annette Saunders
As a SAAF veteran speaking from experience - have you ever seen the splash a soggy Ouma rusk can make when it breaks after dunking in coffee and a piece falls back into the mug ... very similar to a depth charge :D
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