Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 20, 2007 20:43:57 GMT 12
I was in the library today looking up some old newspaper articles. I found a piece in a newspaper called the Waikato Weekender dated the 25th of February 1983. It was all about the RNZAF museum at the time, their recent acquisitions and such. And their plans.
One thing mentioned was three replicas that the museum then planned to build for display. The first was the Bleriot XI 'Brittainia', which was indeed built and hangs in the Atrium.
However they also planned to build a replica 1917 Caudron as used by Sir Henry Wigram's Canterbury Flying School in WWI to train pilots for the Great War at Sockburn.
The other was an Avro 504K to represent the NZPAF.
Both these would have been great, and I wonder if they still have these projects in the planning for when all the current real aircraft are restored? It'd be neat of Omaka could get a flying Caudron replica.
Another thing of interest was they had apparently been on a search for the remains of a Hawker Tomtit (they must have been following some leads to follow). But all they found was the two wheels, being used on a trailer. Then later a Tomtit elevator was found in the loft of a disused building at Wigram complete with its RAF servicing card attached! Does anyone know if these Tomtit parts are on display? I know there's a spiked wheel in the NZPAF case but I don't know if it'd from the Tomtit.
One thing mentioned was three replicas that the museum then planned to build for display. The first was the Bleriot XI 'Brittainia', which was indeed built and hangs in the Atrium.
However they also planned to build a replica 1917 Caudron as used by Sir Henry Wigram's Canterbury Flying School in WWI to train pilots for the Great War at Sockburn.
The other was an Avro 504K to represent the NZPAF.
Both these would have been great, and I wonder if they still have these projects in the planning for when all the current real aircraft are restored? It'd be neat of Omaka could get a flying Caudron replica.
Another thing of interest was they had apparently been on a search for the remains of a Hawker Tomtit (they must have been following some leads to follow). But all they found was the two wheels, being used on a trailer. Then later a Tomtit elevator was found in the loft of a disused building at Wigram complete with its RAF servicing card attached! Does anyone know if these Tomtit parts are on display? I know there's a spiked wheel in the NZPAF case but I don't know if it'd from the Tomtit.
