New charge for overseas visitors
From 31 March 2025 international visitors to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand will be required to buy a $15 ticket.
We’re sorry to have to charge after being free for so many years, but the charge is required to cover rising costs and to contribute to our new $16 million extension to house the newest members of our collection – our historic Hercules and Orion aircraft.
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The Hercules has landed!
The RNZAF's fleet of five Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport aircraft served New Zealand for 60 years. Learn all about the aircraft from the people who flew it in the 1960s, and the final crews who operated the Hercules until its retirement. This film is a tribute to this extraordinary aircraft and to all of those who maintained and operated the mighty Hercules over those years.
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Our Lockheed C-130H (NZ) Hercules and P-3K2 Orion have had long-term preservation work completed so they can be safely stored while we work on plans for a new permanent exhibition space large enough to house them.
Measuring 29.8m from nose to tail, with a wingspan of 40.5m and a tail soaring to just under 11m high, the Hercules is too large for our current exhibition halls. The Orion is almost as tall and even longer – stretching to 36m thanks to its submarine-detecting tail boom.
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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
BROOKES IN BLUE: Ryan Brookes dropped by to pay his respects to his late uncle, James Brookes, and to take a look at our Bristol Freighter.
James was an RNZAF Bristol Freighter pilot, who lost his life in an accident shortly after take-off from RNZAF Station Woodbourne on 27 May, 1953.
NZ5908 crashed into high ground 11km from Woodbourne, with the loss of five lives.
Ryan joined the RNZAF as an engineer and served for 26 years – 15 years in uniform and 11 years as a civilian – before retraining as a civilian pilot for Air New Zealand.
The RNZAF runs in the Brookes family. Ryan’s son Ben has just joined the RNZAF and is training at Woodbourne, making him the third generation Brookes in Blue.
James’s name is one of 4800 on our Roll of Honour, which commemorates those who have died while in the service of the RNZAF or other air forces around the world.
Thanks for popping by your museum Ryan!
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URGENT CLARIFICATION: It has been brought to our attention that there may be growing confusion about the differences between the Bristol B170 and the Mercedes B170.
This is not surprising given the striking similarities between these twins. As well as sharing a model number and having fixed undercarriages, both were spacious, playful and reliable family wagons with rakish good looks but a serious practical purpose.
So, in the interests of clarity, we’ve put together a helpful guide which we hope will enable you to tell them apart at a glance.
Obviously, the first giveaway is in the motive power department.
The Mercedes B170 was powered by a single 1.7 litre naturally aspirated inline four-cylinder engine capable of producing 113 horsepower.
The Bristol Freighter had a bit more grunt. Its pair of Bristol Hercules 14-cylinder engines produced 1980 horsepower each, for a total of 3960 horses. More than an entire season of Yellowstone!
The Mercedes had a top speed of 184 km/h, while the mighty Freighter topped out at 362km/h. Of course, the Freighter could never get near the Mercedes’ open road fuel economy of 5.8 litres per 100 km. The Freighter’s open road economy figures are still classified but our maths says it slurped fuel at the rate of 583 kg per hour.
Aside from the power plants the other obvious giveaway can be found in the bonnet arrangement.
On the Freighter it is a unique set up, with its bonnet split in two below the cockpit in a clever clamshell arrangement which allowed luggage and taller RNZAF personnel to be loaded from the front.
By contrast the Mercedes B170 had a rear luggage compartment with a conventional roof hinge arrangement to allow loading from waist height.
Finally, if you’re still confused, a quick glance inside at the toileting arrangements will dispel any confusion. The Bristol Freighter was fitted with both a urinal and a toilet commode for a comprehensive toileting experience. Surprisingly for such a luxury brand, the Mercedes B170 did not come with a urinal or a commode as standard extras.
This clarification was brought to you by SpecSavers.
You’re welcome!
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One Obvious difference missed in this comparison and easily picked up by the more observant of us is…. The Freighter only has 3 wheels against 4 in the Mercedes 😂 😂
The Bristol has many more rivets, ( all in close formation) than the Mercedes..
I think they would be easier to tell apart if they weren’t the same colour.
Yet another important clarification. Good to know we can still keep state secrets about the things that matter 🤭🤣
Why would you ever want a Mercedes when you could have a Bristol B170??? Though you could park the Mercedes in its belly and use it while the Bristol has its spark plugs changed...
Can you see the family likeness?
When I was working as a casual loader for Air New Zealand, Safe Air was using a Bristol B170 and an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy to fly freight to/from the Chatham Islands. I can still see those big nose doors opening up as we wandered over to unload it
Having been a passenger in the Bristol version on a couple of occasions, I remember one feature that was a bit concerning. While flying over Cook Strait, you could see whitecaps through the gaps in the floor …
Absolutely no competition, the car definitely won't last like the top one, plus it's full of rivets not glue 😉, and could carry 3 of those little bugs 😉.
The Freighter also came out with the Sports model, this had Swept Wings and could do an extra 2 kph, in a dive with a tail wind.
One of them has class, style, personality and will people a nice, warm emotional "glow". The other is a car
The Bristol is the better looking of the two.
Brilliant 😅
Whoever is creating your social media posts deserves a raise 🏆
The Bristol can fly (sort of) the Mercedes is grounded...
We had NZ 5902 in our backyard up until 2 years ago, I miss the old girl, cheers
Flew from Lydd to Le Touquet on a Bristol super freighter more years ago than I care to remember...
I can't see the Mercedes' propellors! 🙁
This is the type of content I like to see in my feed. Top notch! Your social media team is reaching the altitudes of Ryanair's SoMe wizards.
The one on the bottom has 4 wheels....the one on top has 3.....I hope this helps those who gets them confused.....
🙂
Calum Joseph
Omes a turd
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GUESS THE COCKPIT: Name the RNZAF aircraft this mystery cockpit belongs to and go in the draw to win a fantastic Air Force Museum of New Zealand roundel mug.
These are the coffee mugs that everyone is talking about this year, they are white, with a roundel, and they come with a handle suitable for left and right handed people.
Put your guess in the comments below, or, for a more confidential service, email communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz.
Good luck guessers!
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Mmm could be a series one Landrover?
Having spent several years in the 80s in 2 Hangar maintaining them, I declare the mystery solved. It is a PAC CT4 Airtrainer.
That is a CT/4B Airtrainer NZ1948 love flying them
Strike master ?
CT4 Airtrainer. Will never forget that after the sweat that got put into scanning those flight instruments.
CT-4 air trainer
Going to guess ct4e we hD one of thr ex rnzaf ones for a bit
CT4b Airtrainer I worked in the wing section at Aerospace when they were built !!
PAC CT-4B AirTrainer! Very lucky to work with an airworthy one and have had a flight in it!!
Air tourer?
Ct-4 air trainer
CT-4 Airtrainer. Remember going for a ride in one, and the pilot asked me what I had for breakfast, so he knew what he was cleaning off the canopy afterwards.
CT4 Airtrainer. Great aircraft to fly in.
CT-4 Airtrainer?
CT-4B Airtrainer
CT 4 Airtrainer
CT4 Airtrainer
Looks a lot like a CT-4.
The good ol Airtrainer!!
I’ll go with herd mentality here and say……..it’s a plane cockpit! Na it’s the CT4b airtrainer :3
CT-4B Airtrainer
CT4 Airtrainer
A CT-4 Airtrainer.
CT4 Airtrainer
CT4 airtrainer
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