NAC 737 livery changeover?

[gyrocaptain]

G'day all, my first post on here, so forgive me if this has been answered already.

Over what period did the NAC 737 fleet transition form the red cheatline 'National Airways' scheme to the orange & red hockey stick 'Wings of the Nation' scheme?

More specifically, in November 1976 my family and I flew a CHC-WLG sector on a NAC 737 and I'm wondering which livery would have been most likely at the time?

I ask as one of my vices is getting a 1:400 scale collection of all the aircraft I have flown on (where possible). A while back I organised a custom of this with some mates in Canada:

But am now wondering if the 'Wings of the Nation' scheme might have been more likely.

Cheers!

[chinapilot]

There was a book on the history of NAC published a couple of years ago. Don't have my copy to hand but someone could probably have a glance through theirs as I'm sure the colour scheme change was mentioned.

[pvsjetstar]

The 'Wings of the Nation' livery was introduced to NZ for the first time on Boeing 737-219 ZK-NAC in approximately June 1975. The first Boeing 737 delivered new from the factory in this livery was Boeing 737-219 ZK-NAP which arrived in NZ on 7 Sep 1975. The fleet of Boeings and F27 Friendships was gradually repainted and as I understand it, the entire fleet was painted before the end of 1976. However the red and orange stripes of the Wings of the Nation livery were quickly amended after the merger of NAC and Air NZ on 1 Apr 78, with the disappearance of the Godwit and the addition of the Koru. The last NAC aircraft to be painted into the Blue/Turquoise/white livery of Air NZ, was Boeing 737-214 ZK-NAK which was repainted in late 1984.

[gyrocaptain]

Thanks very much for that!
It looks very much like my 737 flight in mid November 1976 would have been in the 'Wings of the Nation' livery then.
Fortunately I have a 1:400 scale model in the hybrid Air New Zealand / Wings of the Nation colours.
www.diecast.aero/model-id-700-boeing-b-737-214-air-new-zealand-zk-nak.html
It should be an easy conversion to put her back in her NAC colours for display in my 'flown in' cabinet.

Cheers!

[pvsjetstar]

gyrocaptain - send me your email address and I'll send you a fantastic photo of ZK-NAK in the full Wings of the Nation livery. It may be handy if you're going to do a conversion of the ZK-NAK model you have.

Email address: [e-mail]

Cheers,
Paul