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
SMILE HAPPY! It's Sunday.
So get along and meet the gang at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
We've got aircraft, coffee, scones, history, sausage rolls and jokes old and new, with us about, you won't feel blue!
We're FREE and open from 9.30am today at 45 Harvard Avenue, Wigram, Christchurch.
📸Pictures from the RNZAF Flying High Revue, 1944. The aerial shot is of RNZAF Station Wigram, 1941. Nothing has changed! ... See MoreSee Less
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🌨❄ OH NO, FOUR BELOW! 🌨❄ Don't worry Cantabrians, we've got you!
The forecast is terrible again, but we've got a ton of fun inside this weekend with hunts, games and plenty of ways to keep the kids entertained in a warm and FREE destination for children.
Come along today (did we mention we are FREE!) and see our brand new Tall Tails Exhibition.
It features the giant fin and rudder sections off our national heroes - the C-130 Hercules and P-3 Orion.
Kids (and grandies) 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.
#freethingstodoinchristchurch ... See MoreSee Less
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I loved going there with my uncle who was a volunteer, former WW2 navigator
A beautiful warm place
Wish we were closer 🤩
🚨📢GET THE KETTLE ON DENISE!:🚨📢 Come on down Denise Fuller, winner of this week's double trouble mystery aircraft and airfield competition.
Denise wins a stunning Air Force Museum of New Zealand coffee mug with exquisite roundel designs - just the thing for a cuppa in the winter.
Denise successfully identified the mystery aircraft as a Boeing B-47 Stratojet, JB- 47E variant.
Furthermore, she also correctly identified the airfield as Christchurch International Airport (Harewood).
The 1966 picture of the Cold War Boeing was from the Woolhouse personal album collection.
The United States Airt Force B-47 Stratojet 52-514 accompanied Lockheed U-2 56-6722 during Project HICAT (High-altitude Clear Air Turbulence) and was used as an airborne command post and as a liaison between the U-2 and airports.
The picture is one of the more than 55,000 in our digitial collection which are free to access at fotoweb.airforcemuseum.co.nz/fotoweb/
The Woolhouse album is a stunner - with pictures of some rare aircraft including a Meteor and a Gordon.
Please get in touch by emailing communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz Denise and we will fire up the Tiger Moth and fly your prize out to you. We have decided not to use the Bristol Freighter owing to the price of fuel. We do not own a Stratojet - that would be even pricier to run.
Impossible competition on its way next we#mysteryaircraftc#mysteryairfieldfield ... See MoreSee Less
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