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
ACTION REPLAY: Tired off those endless World Cup action replays?
We've made our own aviation version to cheer you up.
Thanks to our kind neighbours, and control tower occupants Webmad, we have re-purposed footage they've provided of our Hercules NZ7001 landing in February 2025. That's mighty neighbourly!
Check out these action replays to see how well Wing Commander Bradley Scott and the No. 40 Squadron crew landed Charles right on the dot.
Much better than football.
Unfortunately Charles is too chunky to display.
But you can see NZ7001's fin and rudder section in our Tall Tails exhibition on now.
The rest of the C-130H (NZ) will go on display once we've raised the money to build it a new home.
You can support our Home for Heroes campaign here: airfo#HomeForHeroesz#webmad/
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That was impressive
World Cup? What World Cup?
Sam DB I still would love to see the cockpit footage, because there absolutely must be some
Hopefully the new hangar isn't too far away as some of us are "approaching the drop zone" and would relish the opportunity to view 01 again 😉
That was very impressive, even knowing the Hercules ability to pull it off.
What an experience that was. I won’t forget it!
Am I the only one that saw this as a great feasibility study on reopening Wigram airbase?
Bob Janek it never gets old.
So impressive 👌☺️
Hope to get down to Wigram again one day. I flew in 001 from Whenuapai to Alice Springs to Changi in December 1966 - 8 hours for each leg. From Changi I was on a de Havilland Comet 4 - I didn't even hear the jet engines start after enduring 16 hours in the Herc! Came back a month later on 003, which broke down at Alice!
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EIGHTY FIVE YEARS: We've placed a poppy beside the name of the extraordinary Sergeant James Allen Ward.
On this day back in 1941, 'Jimmy' decided to crawl out on the wing of his Wellington bomber flying high in the night sky over the Netherlands to try and snuff out an engine fire.
Incredibly, he succeeded, allowing his aircraft to limp back to England safely.
He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy, for his selfless act.
James Ward, who was born in Whanganui and trained as a school teacher before the war, celebrated the award of his Victoria Cross in August with a dinner.
We've got the signed menus from the celebration in our collection.
Tragically, he was killed a month later while on another mission. He was only 22 years old.
You can read his story here:
airforcemuseum.co.nz/blog/sergeant-james-allen-ward-vc-wing-walker/
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
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAWn_DnUrfU
He went out on that wing twice
Lest we forget!
He‘s been a story in my life since I was a kid, an incredibly brave man.
We Will Remember Them
RIP, Jimmy. Thank you. Lest We Forget.
🌺💙🎖️🌺
🫡🇬🇸
Lest we forget!
Legend
🌺
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FREE FUN FORECAST! The forecast is terrible but we've got a ton of fun for the holidays with hunts, games and plenty of ways to keep the kids entertained in a warm and FREE entry destination for children.
We've got our brand new Tall Tails Exhibition running, featuring the giant fin and rudder sections off our national heroes - the C-130 Hercules and P-3 Orion.
They can fly a C-130H Hercules through the Drop Zone, try an Aermacchi cockpit for size, pilot our Balloon Busters aircraft, or discover what life was like in a prisoner of war camp in our Captured exhibit.
For just $5 you can go behind-the-scenes to our conservation centre and see the hidden gems in our reserve collection or fly a Mosquito Mission simulator on your choice of dangerous raid.
And for parents or grandparents wanting a breather, our Contact Café team is there to make you a coffee, snack or lunch!
If you’re feeling the petrol pinch, make it a full adventure by taking the bus. Hop on the Hornby bus at the central bus interchange. For full journey planning details visit go.metroinfo.co.nz/, The Air Force Museum is conveniently set up as a destination.
The Air Force Museum is free for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand. There is a $15 charge for international visitors aged over 18 years.
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