Aircraft of the Year
Congratulations to our winners!
We are very excited to reveal that the Bell UH-1H Iroquois and the Bristol B.170 Freighter have been declared joint winners in the Aircraft of the Year competition after they were caught in a dead heat when polls closed.
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New exhibiton: Insights
Insights
Caldwell Gallery
From delicate pastel and crayon sketches to the brutality of a crash-damaged German bomber engine, Insights offers a tantalising peek at the breadth and depth of our collection. Like many museums, space constraints mean that only a fraction of our one million or so objects can ever be on display. It is a collection containing stories more than 100 years in the making and a source of endless fascination for the team of people who work to catalogue, conserve and care for it.
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From delicate pastel and crayon sketches to the brutality of a crash-damaged German bomber engine, Insights offers a tantalising peek at the breadth and depth of our collection. Like many museums, space constraints mean that only a fraction of our one million or so objects can ever be on display. It is a collection containing stories more than 100 years in the making and a source of endless fascination for the team of people who work to catalogue, conserve and care for it.
Featured Exhibition
P-3 Orion
Located upstairs in our Cochrane Gallery, our Orion exhibition traces the origins and service history of the RNZAF’s fleet of maritime aircraft which performed exceptional service for almost 60 years.
The exhibition includes a scale model of the aircraft dating back to 1968, and a 13-minute documentary featuring interviews with pilots and crew, and a yachtie rescued by the aircraft back in 1994.
P-3 Orion: The story of an extraordinary aircraft is not to be missed!
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The exhibition includes a scale model of the aircraft dating back to 1968, and a 13-minute documentary featuring interviews with pilots and crew, and a yachtie rescued by the aircraft back in 1994.
P-3 Orion: The story of an extraordinary aircraft is not to be missed!
Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
Music was Neville Cudby's superpower - and there were tears yesterday when his family dropped by to see a tribute to the euphonium-playing superman's extraordinary 60 years of service to the RNZAF.
Neville enlisted as a Territorial Air Force Musician in the RNZAF Central Band in 1959. He reluctantly retired in 2019, and passed away, aged 78, in 2021.
A highly-skilled euphonium player, Neville's record of service to RNZAF music is unmatched. He would have attended an estimated 2,500 rehearsals, paraded over 600 times and performed in up to 1,200 concerts over those six decades.
Lloyd Cudby, Neville's nephew, and his wife Anne Holmstead were visiting from Wellington and came by to see our Insights exhibition, which includes Neville's ceremonial band uniform and his beautifully shiny shoes.
"Music was his superpower and it is great to see his uniform being displayed,'' Lloyd said.
"He would have been thrilled to see this - he was just so proud to be in the band.''
Anne said there were tears when she saw the uniform and remembered the 'lovely' Neville.
For our part we are proud to be able to tell Neville's extraordinary story of service to the RNZAF - thanks for your visit!
#rnzaf #rnzafpastandpresent ... See MoreSee Less
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ATTENTION WIGRAM! We wanted to let you know ahead of time that there will be an RNZAF NH90 helicopter operating over the Air Force Museum of New Zealand tomorrow (Thursday 21 November) between 2pm and 3pm – weather dependent.
The helicopter will be flying around our taxiways and will be landing briefly.
There will be no chance for the public to view the helicopter up close on this occasion - sorry!
Apologies in advance for the noise of those two beautiful Rolls-Royce Turbomecca RTM 322 turbine engines - but some of us will enjoy hearing them.
#wigramskies #hornby #christchurchnzhub #christchurchnz #newworldwigram #ladywigramretirementvillage ... See MoreSee Less
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Can we please watch from a distance my son is helicopter crazy
Can we watch from a distance?
Where would be the best place to watch from? Fortunate to be visiting the museum tomorrow afternoon anyway!
Will always miss the sound of the Iroquois.
I love it when they come! Their flight path usually comes almost above my house (if I stood on my roof I could probably see the museum.) Sadly I won't be home tomorrow to hear it 😔😅
Is it just me or does the 'air force' text look wrong in white? Did it used to look like this because I always thought it was black?
Beaut, I’ll be at the fence watching…. 🤞🏼🤞🏼to the weather
Michelle Ngatai this would be so good for little man to go see tomorrow if he doesn’t go to school xxx
Looking forward to it!
No apologies necessary , will be there watching with interest .
Couple flew over our place at Renwick this afternoon. Presume they're stopping at Woodbourne tonight.
what a shame they couldn't be a bit later so the air cadets cld check it out 🙁 No. 17 (City of Christchurch) Squadron, Air Training Corps
Dam, come down Fly over, Pleasant Point,
Don’t ever apologise for that noise!!! :)
Bella Coordinator might be buzzing over your place.......👍🙂
We should have more of them and some for police
Renae let’s get you addicted ! Lol
Two departed Hokitika at 1330 today.
Alex Hunter tie down the good china
Barry Tod
😍
Glenn Wellman
Colin Taylor
Pauline MacKay
Catherine Gourdie
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HERC YEAH! Our new film about the extraordinary Lockheed C-130H Hercules is now in the works.
And we'd like to say a huge thank you to No. 40 Squadron for hosting us at Whenuapai, taking part in the filming and for providing NZ7002 as the perfect cinematic backdrop last week.
Also on our thank you list is retired Wing Commander Gordon Ragg, one of the young pilots who flew NZ7003 on its delivery flight in 1965.
Gordon generously gave us his time to recount his memories of what it was like to fly the brand-new Hercules all those years ago, and what a contrast it was to the piston-engined Hastings and DC-6s.
The last of the fleet of C-130Hs is due to retire in January, having served the RNZAF for almost six decades.
From Antarctica to Afghanistan the Hercs have done it all, and we can't wait to tell their story with documentary maker Belmont Productions.
We will be putting together an exhibiton to go with the film, similar to the one we have running currently to pay tribute to our other extraordinary aircraft - the P-3K2 Orion.
In case you haven't already seen it here's the Orion story - youtu.be/IFzp9YtA-2Y - and we look forward to doing the #extraordinaryaircraftxt#c130hherculesr#RNZAFC#Lockheedl#p3orionf #lockheed #p3orion ... See MoreSee Less
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So does that confirm Herc NZ7002 has been chosen to go on display alongside Orion NZ4203?
Speaking of Gordon, not only did he deliver 03, you can see him in the cockpit in this photo of 03 on its last day of active flying photographed from another Hercules. Quite special to be there at the start and at the end. 03 was flown to WB for retirement following this flight.
02. Her name was "Earnie" the fastest milk cart in the east.
When is this Film going to be Released Air Force Museum of New Zealand ? 🙂
I took this picture at Ohakea when Gordon Ragg was flying the new C-130. I'm unsure of the date, but it was an early demonstration flight.
Is it 03,that the Wigam Museum will receive at a later date??
Love the Orion video. Looking forward to the Hercules.👍💕
Flew that beautiful machine for the US Coast Guard and US Air Force for 21 years. Miss the ole girl. From transport, to cargo, to rescue, to combat, the BEST airplane ever built. Love my Hercules!
Old girl was doing some high speed flyovers yesterday evening, sounds amazing compared to the new ones
Drawn by the GH, I forgot his and name and by yours truly
Look forward to that
Gorgeous aeroplane
I am ex RAAF and always wondered why the RAAF and RNZAF didn't combine with troops being posted to each others bases to get to know how "across the ditch" did things. . It could have given NZ pilots fighter aircraft training and operation ect incase the sh!t does hit the fan one day.🤔
Cannot wait
Would one of the retired C-130H's be heading to the new hanger being built at the Ashburton Aviation Museum? Along with an Iroquois?
Shane Hall
Kevin Morgan
JohnJen Thompson
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CLIFFHANGAR! After two weeks of voting we don't have an Aircraft of the Year - we have two!
We are very excited to reveal that the Bell UH-1H Iroquois and the Bristol B.170 Freighter have both been declared the winners in the competition after they were caught in a dead heat when polls closed.
We thought about a tiebreaker vote but then decided that they are both fantastic and deserve to share the honours.
Both aircraft are good sports and have promised not to contest the vote or claim the election was stolen.
Third place went to the Curtis P-40E Kittyhawk, crowd pleaser the McDonnell Douglas TA-4K Skyhawk came fourth and the English Electric Canberra B.Mk.20 rounded out the top five.
The Consolidated Catalina, an early favourite, faded to finish sixth and last year's winner, the Lockheed P-3 K2 Orion came in eighth.
Thanks to everyone who voted - we will do it all again ne#RNZAFr#aircraftoftheyeartoftheyear ... See MoreSee Less
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This was obviously rigged against the Vildebeest. The truth will come out.
How many votes did the Freighter and Iroquois each achieve by the final count?
Perfect ~ the huey and a 10000 bolts flying in unison, Both are proven work horses
Both are outstanding & both have their own very unique sound signature 👌 Well done to both 👏
roll on next year with the Herk
Flown in both. 🙃
Same top speed
maybe they could flip a coin pip pip tally ho old bean what?
😀 Some good ol American ingenuity there on that list 😉 What gives dwn there kiwis ? Not much for indigenous flying machines.
Woohoo!
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