Media Release: 4 June 2026
Tall Tails Exhibition launches at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Two giant aircraft tails are the stars of the show at a new Air Force Museum of New Zealand exhibition.
The tails belong to two national heroes – the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and P-3K2 Orion aircraft – which are now retired at the museum and have been placed in long term storage. The aircraft saved lives and kept our shores safe for six decades.
The Orion retired to the museum in 2024 and the Hercules landed at Wigram in Christchurch on a make-shift runway on its final flight in 2025 – attracting a huge amount of public interest.
The four-engine giants are so large their tails had to be removed so they could fit in storage hangars.
Museum Director Brett Marshall said the storage challenges the size of the tails posed got the team thinking – why not put the tails on display? And Tall Tails was born.
“They’re massive which just happens to make them the best possible demonstration of the difficulties we face to house aircraft of this scale – and so we think they’re the perfect cheerleaders for the campaign.
“Now everyone can come and see the tails, be awed by their size and the scale, and the challenge to build an exhibition space large for the complete aircraft.
“We know there is huge public interest in them and this is a way people can get a glimpse of at least part of them and get in behind our Home for Heroes campaign to build them a permanent home.’’
Tall Tails is free for New Zealanders and is on every day at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand from 9.30am until 4.30pm.
NOTES: The aircraft are national treasures and the largest objects currently in any museum. The Orion and the Hercules flew for a combined 60,000 flying hours all over the world from 1965 until retirement. They performed extraordinary service for New Zealand and they are national icons with people turning up in their thousands here to see them before they were stored.
The Christchurch City Council has committed $5 million to the campaign, and the Air Force Museum of New Zealand is raising the rest of the money through a public campaign.
History of the aircraft: NZ7001 was the first RNZAF Lockheed C-130H Hercules off the production line in Georgia in 1965. It was also the last RNZAF H-model Hercules to fly operationally, retiring after 60 years of service and 33,000 hours of flying.
It is the only Hercules to be conserved by the RNZAF.
NZ4203 is the only Orion in the RNZAF’s fleet of six to be conserved. Built by Lockheed and delivered in 1966, it flew 27,000 hours in its 54-year career as a maritime patrol aircraft and performed extraordinary service for the RNZAF and for New Zealand.
ENDS
For more information or pictures please contact:
David King, Public Engagement Manager, Air Force Museum of New Zealand
communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz
021 499 602
