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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 1, 2007 22:25:19 GMT 12
Did any of our faithful photogs know about this and capture a photo or two? Interesting visit... American Aircraft to Make Flying Visit to NZThursday, 28 June 2007, 10:07 am Press Release: New Zealand Defence Force 28 June 2007 A United States Air Force Boeing 757 aircraft will land at Auckland International Airport tomorrow as part of a test and evaluation flight to assess a wing modification. The aircraft is almost identical to the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Boeing 757 and is used for VIP and general military transport tasks. RNZAF Air Component Commander, Air Commodore Peter Stockwell, said the visit was a good opportunity for the RNZAF to view the winglet modification on the American aircraft and to interact with one of the few military operators of the Boeing 757. “The US Air Force is testing winglets on the aircraft to improve fuel efficiency. It’s a good chance for us to have a look at the modification and find out what performance improvements it may make. “The visit is also an opportunity for RNZAF personnel to meet their American counterparts and learn more about their operational procedures and compare them with our own.” The American air crew will be hosted for the day by 40 Squadron at RNZAF Base Whenuapai. Personnel from 40 Squadron recently visited Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, the home base of the visiting aircraft and crew. The USAF Boeing 757 will depart New Zealand tomorrow night. ENDS www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0706/S00337.htm |
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Post by Damon on Jul 1, 2007 23:40:36 GMT 12
Nice of the guys of the USAF to drop by.A thawing of relations I hope.
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Post by steve on Jul 2, 2007 0:53:03 GMT 12
I suspect there will be a deputy sec of state or some other state dept official.. it is nice to see a slow improvement in realationship with USAF visits. How UK and Aus being so close along with Canada and NZ in the frosty zone still anoys the heck out of me..
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 2, 2007 2:22:50 GMT 12
Has the USAF ever really stop coming to NZ? I mean, apart from the Operation Deep Freeze flights, I would assume there have been other times that USAF transports have passed through from time to time? A lot of these US military transports look just like civilian aircraft nowadays: for some reason they don't seem to like to draw too much attention to themselves.
I wonder if this means we'll be seeing the RNZAF B757s flying with winglets one day?
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Post by steve on Jul 2, 2007 2:35:23 GMT 12
Quite right they have been coming more lately in the past three years on 737s and small jets from Hawaii Pacific fleet. By the way just read in the latest Aus aviation that our big brother Aus is now spending 2% of GDP on defence. Imagine what we could do with kiwi forces if we had a similar commitment of tax dollars. We currently spend only 0.9%. However regardless of budgets we have not got the man power to even boost the navy by three hundred with the police competing to fill the 1000 new police officers budgets for last election.
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 2, 2007 2:40:15 GMT 12
Yeah, the USAF and USN come to Canberra every so often in Gulfstreams and B737s to support the operation of the US Embassy here, and I guess to pop in and have tea with John Howard. I just wish the ADF would spend that 2% of GDP a bit more wisely sometimes though; I'm sick of reading about projects that go pear-shaped, like the Super Seasprites!  |
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Post by FlyNavy on Jul 2, 2007 9:11:29 GMT 12
What other projects have gone pear-shaped (aside from Seasprites for RAN)?
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 2, 2007 10:04:33 GMT 12
The M113 APC upgrade and refurbishment - over budget and way behind schedule; Collins-class submarines - various problems, but okay now apparently; Tiger helicopter program - behind schedule and still with a number of (mostly) small bugs to iron out; B737 AEW&C - behind schedule due to software intergration issues. And they're just the ones I can think of off the top of my head!  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2007 10:44:42 GMT 12
The USAF does visit NZ and I wasn't trying to imply that they don't. Just this was an interesting visit as they were flying a modified Boeing 757 and it could be related to the RNZAF's own aircraft.
There have been several visits in recent times to Whenuapai of those massive transports - um, Galaxy? I can't recall their name.
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Post by Kereru on Jul 2, 2007 12:05:19 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2007 12:13:28 GMT 12
Yeah that's the ones. Crikey, was it that long ago? How time flies. But it proves the point that the yanks still come here sometimes...
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Post by steve on Jul 2, 2007 21:20:30 GMT 12
Saw a couple of c17s last year and was passing whenuapai today and spotted no US B757s however there was a aussie c130J which i have not seen since an airshow. I was really surprised how light the grey tone is when parked beside a navy seasprite. It looked one shade lighter again in grey compared with the chopper
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 3, 2007 0:07:20 GMT 12
Steve, the RAAF C-130Js are currently being repainted in a two-tone grey. I posted a link to a picture on 'airliners.net' on the thread about the C17/A400/C130; although the latest Australian Aviation also had another photo of a C-130J in a slight variation to this scheme. The photo is here: www.airliners.net/open.file/1169647/L/ |
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Post by Calum on Jul 3, 2007 10:31:16 GMT 12
I wonder if this means we'll be seeing the RNZAF B757s flying with winglets one day? I beleive that was one of the resons for the visit |
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Post by steve on Jul 3, 2007 11:15:02 GMT 12
Thanks for that info...The new C130J colours look an improvment with the underside light grey looking identical to what i saw yesterday while the top coat very similar to the RNZAF C130s...nice combo
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 3, 2007 11:21:00 GMT 12
The underside demarcation line is very severe though; although the C-130J in the Aust Aviation has a wavy line which looks much nicer.
The winglets would look pretty cool on the 757.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Jul 3, 2007 21:04:46 GMT 12
Was in Christchurch today, Deep Freeze area was devoid of any military aircraft. It is winter I suppose, bit dark down ice way.
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Post by corsair67 on Jul 3, 2007 21:39:27 GMT 12
Do the USAF still do a mid-Winter drop to the ice?
I remember it was quite an operation with KC-10s and C-5s at one stage, but I guess if it still happens the C-17s will have taken the place of the C-5.
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