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
EVER WONDERED? Why did the Chance-Vought F4U-1/F4U-1D and Goodyear FG-1D Corsairs flown by the RNZAF have gull-shaped wings?
Excellent question!
In 1938 the US Navy wanted an aircraft powered by the extremely potent new Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine which was capable of producing 2000 horsepower.
The Navy was also keen on an aircraft capable of 640 km/h, and when they did the maths this required a propellor with a diameter of 4 metres.
To fit this massive propellor the aircraft would require tall landing gear, which was likely to be complicated and heavy, producing a lot of drag.
The engineers all got together to ponder a solution, and they came up with a bent wing design. By bending the wing, the landing gear could be kept short and the wings low, keeping drag to a minimum.
Genius.
The RNZAF thought so and there were more Corsairs in the air force than any other aircraft type. The RNZAF operated 424 Corsairs from 1944, with the last aircraft retiring in 1948.
But wait, time for one more question. Why did Goodyear, more famous for making tires, make Corsairs?
The answer is that Chance-Vought was a relatively small manufacturer and ran out of capacity to meet the huge demand for aircraft during the war years.
Goodyear had excess factory space, and manufactured Corsairs under licence.
#rnzaf #corsair ... See MoreSee Less
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Rumor has it the fabled Ensign Eliminator was no match for RNZAF Pilots.
Hellcat had the same engine and prop yet didn’t require an inverted gull wing. I suggest the primary reason was a reduction in intersection drag.
HUB DAY! Great turnout today for the monthly Veterans’ Hub gathering at our place, which featured a visit from Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Chief Executive Alexander Brunt and Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink.
Alexander was welcomed to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand by Director Brett Marshall, before giving the veterans an update on the claims progress and a planned new IT system at VA.
He then took time to meet with everyone who wanted a chat. And there was a lot of chat, with gunners, infantry, aviators and sailors all on parade.
Vanessa is a former Army doctor and a veteran as well – so she was with her people!
The Veterans’ Hub was founded in Christchurch as a place for veterans and their families and meets on the last Friday of each month at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at 10am.
So if you’re a veteran or family, and would like to connect, come along!
There are now Veterans’ Hubs in Kerikeri, Blenheim, Ashburton, Timaru and Invercargill.
#veteransaffairs #nzdf ... See MoreSee Less
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Thanks for that, I've noted it my book as I just returned home from after living in Oz for 30 odd yrs and most of that was in the RAAF Ground Defence Wing as an ADG.
Another great catch up with fellow vets.
Thank you for promoting the Veterans' Hub Veterans' Hub, Marlborough
🚨RNZAF ROVER TO THE RESCUE🚨: As we gear up to celebrate the 80th annniversary of the mighty Land Rover in 2028, we begin our countdown with a new occasional picture series.
🚨RNZAF ROVER TO THE RESCUE🚨 is a celebration of all the photos in our archive featuring Land Rovers on the way to help out in some form or other.
These oil-dispensing marvels of British engineering and workmanship have been witnesses to a lot of history, as our series will reveal.
In our season opener from 1960, a Land Rover lends a hand to transport North American Harvard NZ1058 from a rail carriage at Sockburn.
Where the Harvard was going, or where it had come from, is a mystery but one thing is beyond doubt - the Land Rover was built for this kind of thing.
#RNZAF #Sockburn #landrover #northamericanharvard #NZGR ... See MoreSee Less
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I have a connection to both: in the '60s, when I was in ATC in Dunedin, I had a flight in a Harvard. Later, when I left school, I got a mechanic apprenticeship with the local Rover/Land Rover agent. Care to guess which one I enjoyed more? (Hint: sixty years later, I still don't think kindly of Land Rovers)
80th anniversary in 2028 I think?
Photo I took a few years ago of my "Skippy" on towing duties in Mandeville, Gore. Aircraft is a1936 Beechcraft C17B Staggerwing.
And this Harvard is with the Ferrymead Aeronautical Society. Currently being restored.