Some early RNZAF Airtrainer History

[Dave Homewood]

First Airtrainer reaches Wigram

The Royal New Zealand Air Force officially took delivery at Wigram yesterday of the first of its long-awaited Airtrainers. It was flown from the manufacturer, Aerospace Industries Ltd. of Hamilton, by Flight Lieutenant N. Davey in 2hr 50min. after a brief stop at Wellington,

Watched by several hundred base staff, the little aircraft touched down at Wigram at 4 p.m. to be met by the base commander (Group Captain I. V. Mackay ), Corporal L. Leeston, the most senior airman at the base, and Airman Cadet I. C. Tait, the youngest.

A bottle of champagne was opened and some was poured over the aircraft’s propeller spinner to mark the introduction of a new training era at Wigram with the new aircraft, of which the R.N.Z.A.F. has ordered 13. Flight Lieutenant Davey, who test flew the Airtrainer at Hamilton, handed over the aircraft log to Group Captain Mackay, who afterwards made a short acceptance speech.

PRESS, 28 JULY 1976

[johnnyfalcon]

What year was the -B retired for the -E?

[Dave Homewood]

The CT-4E's entered service September 1998, I believe.

[johnnyfalcon]

So we got a good 20 years out of the little airframes

[Dave Homewood]

More were added to the fleet after the initial order of 13 too, bringing the total up to 19 aircraft. In 22 years of service there was one fatal accident. Most of the other 18 went to Australia and a lot of them are still flying there I believe.

[tbf2504]

The delivery of the airtrainers was an interesting exercise. There was one engine for the later delivery aircraft (the Attrition airframes). Jim Barclay (later an air commodore) was at CFS and he would travel to hamilton on the Friday shuttle. The next aircraft painted only in primer grey with taped on registration would be flown down to Wigram on Saturday or Sunday (Jim would let me know so that I could get a photo of the arrival) The engine would be taken out and shipped back to Hamilton on the Monday or Wednesday shuttle and fitted to the next airframe to be delivered