What's on at Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Latest from the museum
Latest Exhibition
Tall Tails
Our Tall Tails exhibition features the mounted tails of the C-130 Hercules and P-3 Orion, this new exhibition brings visitors closer to two extraordinary aircraft and the stories they carry. It also highlights the importance of finding a permanent home for them, as the Museum continues to fundraise through the Home for Heroes project.
Tall Tails is on display in our Thérèse Angelo Wing.
Learn More
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
Support Us
Home for Heroes
Join us in building a forever home for New Zealand’s C-130 Hercules and P-3 Orion – icons of service.
For more than half a century, these legendary aircraft carried our nation’s courage across the world – in peace, crisis, and discovery. Now, they need a home worthy of their legacy, where their stories of service, innovation and humanity will continue to inspire.
Learn More
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
Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
CELBRATE THE 4TH JULY WITH AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE PENTAGON! Join Rob McKenzie, who spent three and a half years working on exchange at The Pentagon in Washington, for a talk on the the history of one of the world’s most recognisable buildings on Saturday 4 July at 10am.
Rob, a retired Wing Commander in the Royal Australian Air Force, will share what daily life is like in a building with 23,000 other employees, its own police force and even its own post codes!
His presentation highlights his experiences within the USAF organisation including relevant unclassified facts and observations.
Rob, one of our volunteer guides, joined the RNZAF and served for 16 years with operational tours to Somalia, Bougainville, and Antarctica.
Following an exchange posting with the Australian Defence Force Operational Headquarters in 2001, Rob accepted an offer to enlist into the RAAF.
His service included operational tours to the Middle East and Timor Leste, and an exchange with the USAF.
DATE: Saturday 4 July
TIME: 10am in the Theatre
ADDRESS: Air Force Museum of New Zealand, 45 Harvard Avenue, Wigram, Christchurch
#shortalkseries ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
FREIGHTER NAVIGATOR: Watch as retired Freighter navigator Kerry O'Brien gets a peek inside the cockpit of a Bristol Freighter for the first time in 50 years.
Spoiler alert - he loved it!
The RNZAF's Bristol Freighters were the backbone of transport operations from the early 1950s until the mid 1970s and they saw extensive service in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and the Malayan Emergency.
Kerry is a Vitenam War veteran and a volunteer guide at our museum on Fridays - so come along for a Freighter Friday and ask him anything you like about life aboard the mighty Bristol!
From Rebecca, reliability to drift sights, he can describe #vietnamwarv#bristolfreighterl#RNZAFter #rnzaf ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
Good one Kerry! 🤪🙄
Brilliant memories Kerry, The B170 was an icon in the RNZAF and it served the Air Force well over it's many years of service.
Wow, the last time I saw one of those Bristol Freighters, was when I was living in Singapore in the mid-1970s … FYI my late father used to work aboard said Bristol Freighter over Malaysia( and I still have the official photos to prove it!!)
Gidday Kerry. Nice to be re-educated on how things worked. I have many fond memories of flying with you on that aircraft. Den Monti
Such a great asset to the Team (Kerry, that is, not just the Freighter). 😎
Good story Kerry, enjoyed it. Cheers.
Brilliant
Awesome he can tell a few amazing stories 😀
🫡 Thank you for your service. Enjoyed your tour sir boy that looks hard.
View more comments
RAID ON WUPPERTAL: The night of 29/30 May 1943 was a grim one for New Zealand crews serving in Bomber Command.
That night, 719 aircraft took off for a raid on the industrial area of Wuppertal in Germany, and 36 aircraft were lost.
A total of 21 Kiwi aviators were killed that night aboard 11 of the aircraft. No. 75 (NZ) Squadron took part in the raid and lost 12 crew aboard four Stirling bombers.
Another four New Zealanders survived crashes to be taken prisoner.
The Wuppertal attack was one of the heaviest raids of the war to that point and the incendiaries that were dropped created a firestorm that claimed an estimated 2500 lives on the ground.
The men lost were: Sergeant Robert Albert Francis Woods, 21; Pilot Officer Alfred William Flack, 29; Flight Sergeant John Ernest Clarke, 27; Sergeant Horton Neilson Wade, 30; Sergeant Donald Percy Strong, 24; Pilot Officer Raymond Frederick Bennett, 29; Flight Sergeant Raymond Fraser Norman, 23; Warrant Officer Stanley Leo Kavanagh,24; Flying Officer Kenneth Trevor Estcourt, 28; Sergeant Lionel Fairfax Furner Johns, 23; Flying Officer John Vernon Gustofson, 34; Flight Sergeant Arthur Holdsworth Smith, 32; Flight Sergeant Sydney Russell Thornley, 25; Sergeant Allan McWilliam, 20; Sergeant Allan Corson Anderson MacPhail, 30; Flying Officer Richard Barry Vernazoni, 20; Sergeant Owen Alfred Innes, 34; Flying Officer Charles Hudson Riddle, 21; Flight Sergeant John Henry Roy Carrey, 27; Flight Sergeant Norman Alexander MacLeod, 26.
Early the next morning a young Kiwi Spitfire pilot, Flying Officer George John Moorhead, 21, was killed when his aircraft crashed in the sea, ending a wretched 24 hours of losses.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
📸A No. 75 Squadron Stirling bomber.
📸Images from the Andrew Albert Haydon personal collection.
No. 15 Squadron target photo of Wuppertal, Germany.
Haydon's log book records this aircraft as Stirling BK818. ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
My late father in law was a navigator in this raid. I think, in Lancaster.
I understand this happened 31 May 1943? Are you sure on your dates?
My step father, Frank Norris was a pilot on Sterlings
PO Raymond Bennett is my great uncle. Got some photos of his. Flight book and cap. 2 in the photo are 2 of the survivors I believe
Lest we forget 🇳🇿 Respect 🇳🇿 R.I.P the fallen 🇳🇿
Lest we forget
View more comments