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
Come and see a Supermarine Spitfire in the flesh. TE288 'Rongotea' is a Mk. XVIE Spitfire with 'clipped' wings for its ground attack role.
The Spitfire is also a movie star, featuring in the 1955 film �#spitfiref#freethingstodoinchristchurch #freethingstodoinchristchurch ... See MoreSee Less
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8 December 1963, ATC weekend camp at Wigram, shortly after TE288 arrived in the country. Me in the cockpit.
DRINKS WITH THE PRIME MINISTER: Here’s a tale with a happy ending to brighten your day.
The year is 1953. Your name is Ron Short (first picture), and you are a young Kiwi pilot officer posted to the most exotic RNZAF station on offer – beautiful Cyprus.
You’ve just performed a successful ‘jetobatics’ routine in your de Havilland Vampire with your colleagues from No. 14 Squadron for the then Prime Minister Sir Sidney Holland and you’re preparing to land.
It is at this point you discover the landing gear is faulty, your wheels are stuck, and you’ve got no option other than a wheels-up landing.
Geoffrey Bentley, RNZAF historian, describes what happened next: “Before a startled and anxious Prime Minister the pilot brought his Vampire down with its wheels still folded up. It was a skilful and impressive landing ; little damage was sustained and Short was unhurt.
“Sir Sidney was one of the first to reach the scene and congratulate a very shaken flying officer and lead him by the arm towards the civil air terminal and a timely drink.’’
A casual drink with the Prime Minister may not be a textbook way to recover from stress, but this was the 1950s after all!
So why were the Kiwis in Cyprus?
The RNZAF, at the request of the British Government, sent No. 14 Squadron to Cyprus between October 1952 and May 1955 as part of a strategic show of force in the region. In 1955 the squadron moved to Singapore as priorities changed.
Cyprus is still a strategic base for the Royal Air Force because its location provides a perfect staging base for the Middle East.
According to everyone involved in the RNZAF at the time it was the best posting ever.
The images from our collection are from Sir Sidney's visit in 1953 and from the squadron's time in Cyprus.
#cyprus #dehavillandvampire #rnzaf #raf ... See MoreSee Less
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Gap in my knowledge that RNZAF was there as a result of the Suez crisis period.
THE PENGUIN: New Zealand is home to several species of penguins. But the rarest of them all was not an animal at all.
In March 1917, a Bleriot XI aircraft (similar to the type which had first flown the English Channel in 1909) arrived at the under-construction aerodrome of the Canterbury Aviation Company at Sockburn, Christchurch.
It had been purchased by the company for flying instruction, having arrived in New Zealand in 1912 and passed through the hands of several owners.
In the end, the company adopted the Caudron as the standard aircraft to be operated and after a few flights, the Bleriot had its wings 'clipped'.
#bleriot #canterburyaviationcompany
It became what was known as a 'Penguin'.
The reduced span of its wings would not allow it to fly but it could still taxi around and be used to teach the flying controls while safely on the ground, just like a simulator today.
We know little about its history, but the museum has a signed fragment of propellor believed to be from the aircraft, which suggest it had at least one mishap.
It seems to have been the custom that busted propellors were cut up and signed by those involved, as we have other damaged, signed propellors from Sockburn.
The Penguin is believed to have been scrapped in 1920.
Image 1: Canterbury Aviation Company aircraft outside hangars at Sockburn Aerodrome. The Penguin is on the right-hand side, without a fabric covering. WgF17
Image 2: Propeller fragment signed by pupils at the Canterbury (NZ) Aviation Company, Sockburn. Believed to be off the reduced span Bleriot, known as the Penguin, used for taxiing/ ground control training at the Canterbury Aviation School (sic).
Manufacturer's stamp on front reads "HEL GREMONT / 6 PASSAGE JOSSEAUME / PARIS". Signed on reverse by D. C. Buckley, G. A. Smith and A. C. Parsons. Letter "A." written further down fragment below signatures. Associated with Second Lieutenant Arthur Gordon Webster. 1996/108.2 ... See MoreSee Less
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Interesting history.