The Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum or Air Force Museum of New Zealand as it is now known, is an air force museum located located at Wigram, the RNZAF's first operational base, in Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand. It opened on 1 April 1987, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the RNZAF, and is primarily a museum of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, its predecessor, the New Zealand Permanent Air Force and New Zealand squadrons of the Royal Air Force.
The Air Force Museum of New Zealand's mission is to preserve and present the history of New Zealand military aviation for commemoration, learning, inspiration and enjoyment.
The museum holds the national collection of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The collection includes objects covering the early days of New Zealand military aviation both prior to World War I and during this major conflict, the interwar years which saw the formation of the RNZAF in 1937, New Zealanders who fought in the RAF and in other Allied air forces during World War II, the RNZAF’s campaign in the Pacific, and the post-war period to the present day. The collection also includes objects from former enemy forces, aircraft, aircraft components, aircraft engines, large objects, textiles, art and memorabilia as well as an extensive paper and photographic archive.
After many years of charging admission the Museum has now moved to free admission. Visitors can take a "Restoration Tour" through 'behind the scenes' areas of the Museum including the Restoration and Reserve Collection hangars. The Museum currently has three aircraft restoration projects; the p-40 Curtiss Kittyhawk, the Airspeed Oxford and the Vicker's Vildebeest. The Museum has also has a Mosquito Flight Simulator, which features a mission based on the Allied bombing of German battleships in the Norwegian fiords.
Read more about Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum: Aircraft
Famous quotes containing the words royal, zealand, air, force and/or museum:
“These are not the artificial forests of an English king,—a royal preserve merely. Here prevail no forest laws but those of nature. The aborigines have never been dispossessed, nor nature disforested.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Only if loves fire with the breath
Of life be kindled, I doubt,
With our last air ‘twill be breath’d out,
And quenched with the cold of death.”
—Edward Herbert (1583–1648)
“If writers were too wise, perhaps no books would get written at all. It might be better to ask yourself “Why?” afterwards than before. Anyway, the force from somewhere in Space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“A Museum of fetishes would give special attention to the history of underwear.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)