What's on at Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Latest from the museum
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
Latest Exhibition
Victory!
It is 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
Our Victory exhibition, upstairs in the atrium, marks this significant milestone in world history, and the story of the RNZAF.
Victory includes images and memories of Victory in Europe (VE) Day and Victory over Japan (VJ) Day which have been sourced from photographs, letters, postcards and personal histories in our collection.
Victory includes insights into how Kiwis celebrated, and how they felt.
Many found it difficult to rejoice after so much loss and suffering.
You’re welcome to come along and learn all about the end of World War Two with us.
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.
Learn More
Update
Overseas visitor charge
A $15 entry charge was introduced for all international visitors to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand from 31 March 2025. Tickets available online or from our Welcome Desk on arrival.
The charge is required to cover rising costs and to contribute to our new $20 million extension to house the newest members of our collection – our historic Hercules and Orion aircraft.
Learn More
Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
TIGER BACK HOME FOR TEA: Relax good people of Riccarton - our Tiger Moth is back in captivity.
De Havilland Tiger Moth NZ825 has been the centrepiece of Westfield Riccarton's Anzac display in Christchurch for the past few weeks, and its stay was extended after it proved a hit with shoppers.
We teamed up with @westfieldriccartonnz to find a new way to convey the Anzac story, and a bright yellow biplane in the middle of the mall seemed to do the trick.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force operated 335 Tiger Moths between 1939 and 1956, and these simple but robust little trainers played helped prepare the more than 7000 Kiwi pilots who headed overseas to fight in World War Two.
The aircraft were in such strong demand that de Havilland set up factories in New Zealand and Australia to build them, making them an Anzac aircraft.
Huge thank#westfieldriccartonarton for donating us the space to tell our Anzac story to a new audience. Thanks to Neil from Parks Towing, the man with the gentle Tiger touch.
Thanks also to our team of Tiger tamers - Alan, Barf, Darren, Jim, PJ and Zach. Raz was there with us in spirit.
Finally thanks goes to all the shoppers who stopped to ask us the best questions, including how we managed to land the Tiger in the mall.
The answer is - carefully.
The good news is theTiger is just the tip of the iceberg.
We've also got a Vampire, Spitfire, Anson, Strikemaster, Freighter, Avenger, Kittyhawk, Mustang, Skyhawk, Sioux and Iorquois - and a whole lot more - just 10 minutes down the road from Riccarton at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
We're free for Kiwis and warm and open seven days from 9.30am until 4.30pm.
The #tigermotht#westfieldriccartontfieldriccarton ... See MoreSee Less
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SPITFIRE STUFF: There's something going on with our Supermarine Spitfire today, we can tell because the bonnet is open.
A polite inquiry has been lodged with the Spitfire swat team in our Peter Adamson Conservation Centre - and they have told us they are doing 'stuff.'
If you're interested in mysterious stuff come and have a look for yourself and learn the special story behind our Mk. XVIE Spitfire.
Believe it or not this special Spitfire was once a movie star! And it is always a star at our place -#supermarinespitfire#supermarinespitfire ... See MoreSee Less
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Funny how small the engine is with the cowls off…😂
I was today years old when I found out she didn't have her engine installed.
Spitfire ire ire ire
Hope they film the works...
My unwavering love of clipped wing, bubble top spitfires lay squarely at this one's feet. What a machine
We made a few visits for reference in the recent refurb of the replica TE288, you can learn alot about this plane and its history quickly
Oh cool! I've never seen her with her cowls off! ❤️
The museum is pretty lame, you should try RAF Duxford in the UK if you wanna see some decent exhibits.
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LOOK AT THAT STICKER GO! We’ve found the fastest Kiwi Red sticker on earth, but we need you to keep quiet about it.
Take a close look in the undercarriage bay of the Lockheed YF12 on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio and you’ll see there’s a slightly weathered-looking Kiwi Red sticker taking pride of place.
How it got there is a mystery, and how our volunteer guide Alex McHaffie got behind the barriers to get this photo is an even greater riddle.
What we know for sure it is potentially the fastest Kiwi Red ever!
The YF-12 was no slow coach. The American Mach 3+ capable, high-altitude interceptor prototype, was developed and manufactured by Lockheed as part of its ultra-secret Skunk Works aircraft design programme.
It is the predecessor of the SR-71 Blackbird, and these aircraft were so fast they could outpace surface-to-air missiles.
Mach 3+ means our Kiwi Red sticker was capable of flying at 3,200 km/h, and could reach a ceiling of 80,000 feet.
The predecessor of the YF-12 was the A-12 Central Intelligence Agency spy plane, which was kept secret for more than 20 years.
What is not quite so secret is that Kiwi Red stickers belonged to the RNZAF’s jet aerobatic team from the 1980s until the early 1990s.
Kiwi Red pilots flew No. 75 Squadron Skyhawks, made by McDonnell Douglas and not quite as fast as the AYF12, although they could go supersonic in a dive.
Please keep this sticker business to yourself. Uncle Sam does not need to know.
#nationalmuseumoftheusairforce
#lockheedskunkworks #yf12 #rnzaf #kiwired #usairforce #museumoftheusairforce #usairforcemuseum #lockheedmartin ... See MoreSee Less
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R7/83 Avmech here. I live in the Washington DC area these days and was at the F-22 Raptor IOC anniversary at the USAF museum recently. Got to sit in the cockpit. Thought about starting it up for a ground run, but they had already removed the engines 😎 I’ll be going back there soon, please let me know exactly where that sticker is so I can find it!!
I’ve been fortunate enough to see 2 of those. One at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field, where you walk around the corner from reception and you’re eyeballing it straight ahead, and one at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum at McMinnville (also home to the Spruce Goose), and that one was on the ground and you walk walk right around and under it.
That is a pretty good zap. Wonder if it would cause as much of a stir as one of the RAAF Roulettes getting their sticker on the base of the AFL premiership cup one year.
Been there, hell of a Museum.
Air Force Museum of New Zealand it would be great if you brought those stickers back or a patch ?.
Born into the Wild Blue Yonder Habubrats
Brad Lewis
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force can you confirm this story?
Nice
and what about the Kiwi on the Vulcan in Singapore way back....
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