Postwar aircraft dumps in New Zealand

[Dave Homewood]

Much has been written on the aircraft graveyard at Rukuhia (between Cambridge and Hamilton) after the war, where hundreds of aircraft (P40's, Corsairs, Venturas, Avengers and Hudsons) met their end at the smelter.

But there were other aircraft dumps and disposal sites in NZ too. Does anyone know more about these?

I have seen photos of Catalinas and Sunderlands (plus a Seafire) rotting on the airfield at Hobsonville, awaiting the chop. Also I saw a photo in NZ Wings many years back of Oxfords rotting in a field somewhere near Masterton or down that way.

I know a lot of disposals were done out of Blenheim and Dunedin too. I find it interesting hearing the history of surviving airframes that didn't go into the pot with the others. I wonder how much was saved that is still stashed in a barn or filling a farm ditch, etc.

Look at the recoveries of two Hudsons and several Ansons in the 1980's, and the complete Oxford in the late 1990's. More out there is possible.

[Bruce]

Hi Dave,
The main disposal bases as far as I can recall were:
Rukuhia (Corsairs, p40s, PV1, Hudson, avenger etc)
Hobsonville (Sunderlands, Catalinas, Dauntless)
Woodbourne (Harvards, Walrus(!) oxford, Anson, Mosquito, Mustang (Later))
Fairhall (Satellite of Woodbourne - Oxfords)
Wigram (Harvards - Some of which were stored and later reactivated)
Taieri (Tiger Moths)
Ohakea (postwar- Mosquitos, Hudsons, Hastings)
Obviously once the aircraft were disposed of, collections of surplus aircraft popped up in odd places, Mustang Wings at Motueka, Harvards and Avengers at TeKuiti, etc. Lodestars Hudsons and C47s went to Palmerston North where some went to NAC, others were scrapped.
As you mentioned single aircraft have been recovered from farms and sheds all over the country (the RNZAFM and Ferrymead Hudsons are a good example) and I beleive that more will come to light yet. One thing I would be keen to know the whereabouts of is the B24 Liberator wing dug up near Te Awamutu some years ago. This belonged to the aircraft the Crashed at Whenuapai during the War. It was carrying a load of Japanese Internees being repatriated and the crash was kept very secret for many years for political reasons. Perhaps this is why the wing was disposed of so far from home, but where is it now?

[Dave Homewood]

Cheers for that Bruce. I did not know anything about the Liberator wing being dug up. That is fascinating.

A great deal of stuff was flogged off by the RNZAF and I guess later by the smelters at auctions at Rukuhia. My uncle and his various family members got all sorts of things. My uncle had a Corsair wheel hub, engine bits, prop blade, 250lb bomb (difused of course, and displayed in his garden!) and verious smaller itens. Also a telescopic ladder for an aircraft which he thought was also for the Corsair. In 1992 I convinced my cousin who then convinced my uncle that the RNZAF Museum would like all those bits, and they gladly donated them. However, recently my brother told me he remembered an aircraft part, he thought a wing, in a drain on their farm. Mum asked my aunty and she said they believed it was actually a large float from a plne, and is probably still there. Sadly that part of the property was sold off so is no longer their land. But I should still investigate someday I suppose. I suspect a Catalina float maybe.

I can tell you why so much P51D stuff was at Motueka, the orchardists bought the planes and used the Merlins, props and wheels, making tailers with the prop as a fan to blow frost off the apples in the early morning. Dad worked in an Upper Moutere orchard, near Motueka, in the late 1950's or early 1960's and said in the mornings the valley was awash with the noise of Merlins!

[turboNZ]

That's incredible isn't it having Merlins as breeze makers , when you think of what they are worth now !!!

TNZ

[Bruce]

On the issue of "Bits" of planes turning up in odd places, I have seen photos of a small runabout boat at Houhora, northland in the 1980s - it is made of a pair of Sunderland floats! I would guess that perhaps the floats were those off NZ4114, which was disposed of in 1967, to the Northland Coastguard (what on earth for?) and shifted to Whangarei. It fell victim to vandals and was eventually broken up, which seems a realistic provenance for the Houhora boat.
I know a Catalina (NZ4055) was towed(!) to Wellsford by a local Garage Proprietor who intended to turn it into a pleasure boat. That never happened but it hung around beside the owner house until the 1960s - aparently it made a great play house for his daughter.
Locally couple of years ago I noticed a set of Vampire drop tanks behind a shed at Matangi (near Cambridge). I went past a few days ago and the area where the shed was is being developed with the inescapable lifesyle blocks. The shed and tanks are no longer around - does anyone know anything about them?

[Dave Homewood]

I think I've read the Sunderland that was broken up at Onerahi, near Whnagare, had had a landing accident and was damaged beyond repair, wasn't it?

Interesting about the Catalina. A few more years and Motat probably would have saved it. Shame.

[Bruce]

The sunderland was actually intact and was retired from service (only two were lost in service) and was towed up the coast from hobsonville. I beleive the engines were removed and sold in the USA before sale. The only Sunderlands written off after accidents were NZ4117 which was damaged at Tarawa Atoll in 1961, and NZ4111 which hit a rock in the Chatham Island lagoon in 1959 - pieces of this aircraft are still on the island. All the other Sunderlands made it though to retirement when they were scrapped, except NZ4115 at Motat and NZ4108 which is afe and sound (and potentially airworthy) with Kermit Weeks in Florida.

[hairy]

other places of large scale scrapping;
Bennett aviation in Te Kuiti - Harvards
Blenhiem - Oxfords
A pair of Walrus' on Pararparaumu beach.

Odd places things turn up;
P-51 or Harvard wheels on a water tanker trailer by Auck Int. Airport
A friend of mine has a wheelbarrow with a Vampire nose-wheel.
Solent / Sunderland parts at a car wreckers.

[bazmax]

As a kid I used to work school holidays in an old quarry in Auckland at the corner of Gillies Ave and Alpers St, now the badminton hall. At that time it was owned by Ray Vincent and he used it as a wrecking yard, mainly for WW2 trucks. At one stage he had some corsairs in there. Basically they were scrap; the engines cut through with a welding torch and instruments and things smashed, but he recycled things like wheels and tyres into farm trailers before sending the remains off for smelting.
Probably still some farmer out there trying to figure out what sort of vehicle his trailer wheels came off so that he can at last get some new tyres.

[Dave Homewood]

Welcome to the forum bazmax, thanks for the interesting memories

[yellowbelly]

Mar 13, 2005 13:19:26 GMT 12 Bruce said:

The sunderland was actually intact and was retired from service (only two were lost in service) and was towed up the coast from hobsonville. I beleive the engines were removed and sold in the USA before sale. The only Sunderlands written off after accidents were NZ4117 which was damaged at Tarawa Atoll in 1961, and NZ4111 which hit a rock in the Chatham Island lagoon in 1959 - pieces of this aircraft are still on the island. All the other Sunderlands made it though to retirement when they were scrapped, except NZ4115 at Motat and NZ4108 which is afe and sound (and potentially airworthy) with Kermit Weeks in Florida.

[yellowbelly]

Long shot, but have just finished an illustration of Sunderland NZ4117, she came to RAF Seletar, Singapore in 1956 as part of the RNZAF detachment to take part in the annual defence exercise. We in the RAF were curious because when this boat was slipped for maintenance we were warned not to try to go aboard because it carried 'secret' equipment. Have since learnt it was Autolycus designed to sniff out diesel fumes. She had nose art above the forward door, this resembled a Disney character - Pluto the dog. Has anyone got a picture of this? I would love to see one and confirm my memory is not playing tricks!

[tbf25o4]

Cliff Horrell at Ashburton in addition to Harvard NZ1077 brought a lot of wright cyclone (TBF) engines which he used parts from for various agricultural machinery. At Wigram for a short time were the remains of the two Devons that had the mid-air in 1953 and Devon NZ1830 which crashed during an asymmetric flying exercise.

[shorty]

There were a pair of Mosquito drop tanks alongside a building(auction house?) in Avondale back in the 60's. The Fairhall Oxfords were some of the lot that Gould purchased and had to move of the airfield.
A pair of Vincents were dumped in a creek bed near Rapaura.(since excavated).
Production Engineering (who make all the fuel bowsers in NZ) broke up Vildebeestes and P40s behind their old factory at Marton (the site is now the squash club car park.
The old De Luxe skating rink in Khyber Pass Rd in Auckland used to use Pegasus reduction gear housings to form the corners of the circuit for speed skating.
I'll add more as I think of them.
Also check out this thread rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/6334/rumours

[snaphead]

In 1966 I was at Hobby for my Basic Engineering course, the Sunderlands were being withdrawn from service. A number were still afloat (I have some pic of these somewhere ) and some others pulled up (I think) by the base commanders home.A sovernier was a knife made from a float flying wire. My one has disappeared.

Anothere " discovery" was the remains of a Wilderbeast buried by the Marton Firestation. Recovered parts were u/c struts, lower wings with light weight bomb racks. These were recovered and sent to MOTAT through Shorty. Also recovered was a P-40 tailplane.

On my Fitters course at #4 TTS,we were asked if we were interested in some Mosquito "bits", in an orchard in Renwick which was being "cleaned" up. We recovered some landing gear struts A cockpit frame and one exhaust stub,all were sent to MOTAT by Shorty.

I was also around (as a Mech) when the one Hastings was decapitated by MOTAT and taken away by trailer. It was a long weekend and I was on Duty Crew.

[Dave Homewood]

May 19, 2020 11:18:32 GMT 12 shorty said:

Production Engineering (who make all the fuel bowsers in NZ) broke up Vildebeestes and P40s behind their old factory at Marton (the site is now the squash club car park.

Have you any idea how many P-40's were broken up there, Shorty? or Anyone?

I have also been told several P-40's ended up at Timaru and were broken up there. Who know about this?

[rone]

For what it is worth, I know of a farm in Karaka that still has a trailer with Corsair wheels and tyres. There was once many a farm equipped liked this. I recall when my father was breaking down aircraft and just engines, one of the first items that buyers were after was the magnetos for electric fence units. There was a bloke named Grant out at Karaka who connected them to a electric motor and sold them on. Another who always came sniffing for bits was Jack Asplin. Fence units were scarce back then, so this was always a good seller.

[isc]

I'm not gone yet. When I lived at Dannevirke late 50s/1960, there were a number of boats for the kids to play in at a pool on the Napier Marine Parrade, don't know what happened to them. isc

[aircraftclocks]

I know someone in Auckland who inherited a great collection of American engine studs and bolts from his fathers purchases of surplus after the war.
Looking more into it, I did not realise all the different sized studs etc used on a typical engine.