Since the earliest days of air combat, New Zealanders have fought the war in the skies whenever called. Today while members of the Special Air Service still serve in Afghanistan, the Royal New Zealand Air Force is more often engaged in peacetime emergency response, as demonstrated whenever a major search and rescue operation is needed in the vast South Pacific Ocean.
Air Force personnel are most visible when undertaking disaster relief, such as contributing to the New Zealand Defence Force’s recovery operation following the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011. It is in that very city of Christchurch where Kiwis and international visitors alike go to learn the story of New Zealand’s Air Force.
Classic Aircraft on Display
The Air Force Museum of New Zealand houses a collection of 28 aircraft that have represented New Zealand’s military aviation capabilities from the first tentative pre-World War One days of flight right up to the present. Hanging from the ceiling just inside the main doors is a replica of Britannia, the Blériot XI-2 that was New Zealand’s very first military aircraft, gifted by Britain in 1913. Below the vintage Blériot stands a McDonald Douglas Skyhawk, one of 24 the RNZAF possessed when its post-World War Two combat arm was at its peak of operation.
