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
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
Comment on Facebook
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
Comment on Facebook
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!!
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. 🤷♂️
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.
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!
Best one yet hahaha
😆 🤣 😂
Here's the F55 HMNZS WAIKATO WASP in 1982 during the Falklands War
Another very timely clarification! Air Force Museum of New Zealand doing the important mahi since always 👌
View more comments
LEONARD TRENT DAY: On this day 83 years ago, Leonard Trent earned a Victoria Cross for outstanding leadership, cool, unflinching courage and devotion to duty.
On 3 May 1943, Nelson-born Trent led an attack by 11 Lockheed Ventura bombers from No. 487 RAF Squadron on the Hemweg power station in Amsterdam.
The raid was a disaster, with 10 of the Venturas shot down. Of the 48 crew who set off for Amsterdam, 28 died and 12 were taken prisoner, including Squadron Leader Trent.
RNZAF crew killed on the raid were Thomas James Baynton, 27, Auckland; Andrew Edward Coutts, 27, Whakatane; William Desmond Laurence Goodfellow, 23, Takapuna; Stuart McGowan, 22, Raupare; Stanley Bailey Peryman, 21, Christchurch; Cyril Richard Smith, 29, Millers Flat; and Timothy William James Warner, 25, Wellington.
In 1946 Squadron Leader Trent was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.
His citation, published in London Gazette, included these words:
"Heedless of the murderous attacks and of the heavy anti-aircraft fire which was now encountered, Squadron Leader Trent completed an accurate bombing run, and even shot down a Messerschmitt at point blank range.
Dropping his bombs in the target area he turned away. Immediately afterwards his own aircraft was hit and went into a spin and broke up.
Squadron Leader Trent and his navigator were thrown clear and became prisoners of war. The two other members of the crew perished.
On this, his twenty-fourth sortie, Squadron Leader Trent showed outstanding leadership. Such was the trust placed in this gallant officer that the other pilots followed him unwaveringly.
His cool unflinching courage and devotion to duty in the face of overwhelming odds rank with the fine examples of these virtues.''
— The London Gazette, No. 37486, 26 February 1946[52]
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.
#RNZAF #rnzafpastandpresent ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
I remember a veteran of 487 squadron recounting that they shouldn’t have pushed on without fighter cover…
Trent had a career in the RAF and flew Vulcan bombers,once coming out to NZ.
My Father also flew Venturas in the Pacific in World War Ii. Had a very successful flying career.
Deepest respects. "The bomber will always get through." Bitter. How many men were victim of that fallacy before Bomber Command came to their senses?
Today is an important and sad day in 487 Squadron history. Belonging to the 44 men who flew over the sea towards Amsterdam that day, are numerous stories of incredible courage, determination and selfless dedication to others. Most likely there are more that we won’t ever get to hear.. Those stories were lost along with the brave men who lived them. It is not a day to honour only one. Today, we remember all of them.
Trent drive at Nelson airport is named after him
Andrew Edward Coutts (third from right) joined 487 in September 1942. He was commissioned in January 1943 and flew nine operations with 487, including Operation Oyster, to the Phillips factory at Eindhoven on 6th December 1942. On 3rd May, Andrew and his crew: F/O Leonard Richbell, Flt/Sgt William Goodfellow and Sgt Douglas Robinson, were shot down off the Dutch coast. Richbell's body later came ashore further up the coast and was buried on Pellworm Island (another reference says Hamburg Cemetery). Andrew and his remaining crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, which carries the names of all RAF personal who were lost in action and have no known graves. Andrew left behind a wife and infant daughter. He was a friend of my parents and when I was born after the War, they named me after him. They felt his loss for years and when I was a child my mother often spoke of "Andy". Stuart McGowan (second from right) was also lost on 3rd May. I do not know the names of the other New Zealanders in the photo.
Gerald Peryman
Bless
Alana Cockburn
You may have picked up, that am also offended that you call this day "Leonard Trent Day"
View more comments