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.
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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.
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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.
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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
RAID ON WUPPERTAL: The night of 29/30 June 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
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My step father, Frank Norris was a pilot on Sterlings
Lest we forget 🇳🇿 Respect 🇳🇿 R.I.P the fallen 🇳🇿
Lest we forget
MYSTERY AIRCRAFT COMPETITION: Correctly identify these three aircraft parked at an RNZAF station some time in the 1940s and you can go in the draw to win an Air Force Museum of New Zealand coffee mug.
Good luck - it is not as easy as you may think!
To enter, put your answers in the comments below, or, if you want to keep your powder dry, email communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz for a confidential service.
The winner will be drinking tea or coffee out of a beautiful Air Force Museum of New Zealand roundel mug - they're round with roundel#mysteryaircraftc#RNZAFr#rnzafstationhobsonvillev#rnzafstationwigramigram ... See MoreSee Less
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Well I say they are Aeroplanes
Griffon engined Spitfire, Mitsubishi A6M3 model 22, CAC Wirraway (license built North American NA-33, the under cowling air intake is a give away).
Seafire, Zero, Harvard and two RNZAF personnel checking out the Zero...lol
Spitfire, Zero, Wirraway!
SEAfire, not a Spitfire, the A6M Zero now in the Auckland museum, and a Harvard
Spitfire, Zero and Harvard but let’s not talk about the hard earned war trophy that was sent home and then destroyed?? 😕
Cessna 152, Piper Cub, and a Piper Tomahawk with the engine removed.
Seafire, Zero and Harvard at Hobsonville
My partner tells me they're a Spitfire, a Zero and a Texan AT6/Harvard 🤗
Tom,Dick and Harry
Spitfire, Zero, Harvard
Spitfire, zero and Brewster Buffalo 🦬
Spit, zero and Texan AT6. Zero might be the question mark. Out of place.
VA Supermarine Seafire Mk XV (likely SW853 AC-F), Mitsubishi A6M3 Type 0, "NZ6000" (now at Auckland War Memorial Museum), North American AT-6 Harvard. Was this at Hobsonville?
Spitfire, zero and a harvard?
From left to right: spitfire, zero, P-36
My immediate reaction was spitfire, zero, and Harvard but given its meant to be hard im likely wrong
Hobsonville. My guess as the zero was there for a while
Three Mosquitos.
Left to right seafire Zero NZ6001, Harvard. The location is Hobsonville Station. For Mark, in the British Commonwealth the T6 was called Harvard, and the C47 Dakota
What's a Zero doing at Wigram Airforce base years ago I didn't hear about that a Japanese Zero visit Wigram years ago ?
Thats the FAA Seafire left behind by a Brit carrier. Sadly she was broken up n scrapped. However two lost over board in Gulf.
Old aeroplanes , now where's my coffee ☕ cup
For pity's sake what is a "Harvard" (other than a university)? That's a T-6 Texan. You Kiwis are always coming up with different names. Next you'll be telling me that a C-47 isn't a "Skytrain."
I will leave for the experts but my guess spitfire mkv, fw190 and harvard, all these could be parked at Omaka today lol
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ORION PIONEER: Squadron Leader (retired) Alistair Martin dropped by to check on his Orion – and to share some fantastic memorabilia with us.
Alistair Martin served in the RNZAF for a total of 34 years – 12 years active service and another 22 years as a reserve.
He flew Harvards, Devons, Sunderlands and was one of the delivery pilots for the Lockheed Orions in 1966, flying NZ4202.
After he left the regular force he joined Air New Zealand in 1973, flying DC8s, DC10s and 747-200s before retiring as a captain with about 16,000 hours in his logbooks.
Alistair visited the museum from his home in Auckland to hand deliver some precious cargo – his dad’s logbooks.
His father Graham Martin was a member of the Wellington Aero Club prior to World War Two and so his services were in demand throughout the war as an instructor.
When Alistair read that we are restoring Vickers Vildebeest NZ102 here at the museum he had a look and discovered his father had flown the aircraft in its heyday.
His dad’s logbooks are now part of our collection.
Alistair enjoyed his time in the RNZAF, which was the foundation for his aviation career.
His favourite RNZAF aircraft was – drumroll please – the Orion.
“The P-3 was the best by far. The amount of power you had at your disposal if anything came unstuck was phenomenal,'' he says.
"You could lose an engine and not worry, you could lose two and it would not be much of a problem. You could, in theory, even lose three engines and be fine. They were just so overpowered.’’
Alistair is one of thousands of RNZAF families to entrust their flying memorabilia with us, so that it can be carefully catalogued, safely stored and conserved for the generations to come to enjoy.
If you have anything you wish to donate contact research@airforcemuseum.co.nz or have a look at: airforcemuseum.co.nz/donate-an-item/
Thank you for all your service to the RNZAF Alistair, and thanks for adding to our collection!
#lockheedorion #p3orion #rnzaf ... See MoreSee Less
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Of all the birdies in the sky the Orion was the best to fly.
Great story. Pleased to hear it's been Saved I myself Learned to Fly with the Wellington Areo Club. While a Member of the R.N.Z.A.F. Had a Lot to do with the Sunderland in Evans Bay when we were Servicing the Chatham Islands .
Awesome story