RNZAF Museum photos

Reach for the Sky

Dave Homewood,

From you photo I would have said the code on the cockpit section was VT. This has no significance as a Spitfire Code that I can see so it is perhaps the more plausible XT. What do you think?

TE288 was in the film but did not fly.

TB863, Tim Wallis’ machine, was possibly in the film. The studio shots showing Douglas Bader bailing out and getting his leg caught up appears to be genuine structure. It has been assumed that because TB863 appeared in the workshops of the Battle of Britain film in 1968 from Pinewood studios with the decking adjacent to the windscreen removed, that this is the reason.

Mark

Thanks for the nice pics, Dave.
i will try and visit the Museum when I get there on Thursday.
Just reminded me just how good it really is.

🙂

Originally posted by Aileron Roll
Dave
once again some excellent pics ! Was last there in about 2000, is the A4 still on display ?, or has Helen sold that also ?

I think that one was painted up as the one that W/C (later a/c) Fred Kinvig ejected out of at Ohakea.

Yep, the Squawk is still there, in it’s glorious 1970’s colours (I much perferred the warlike low viz schemes but the Museum’s one is a breath of fresh air in it’s colourful guise).

Helen can’t sell this one, we don’t own it. It is actually owned by the US Navy and is on a long term loan to the RNZAF Museum by arrangement through McDonald Douglas. I wonder if they could arrange a long term loan of some more! LOL

Mark – from memory I think the code on the cockpit section is a V, as in OU V, which TE288 also carries. I think the Spitfire in the Auckland Museum also flew in that film didn’t it? or was that Sir Tim’s one?

…and

TE288

Dave Homewood,

When I first saw your shot I thought that the Mk XVI TE288 had been painted with new codes. I would be interested to know these codes on the cockpit section.

Incidentally for years I had wondered which aircraft had been used in the attached still from the ‘Reach for the Sky’ film. I had scoured it for clues and the only anomaly I could find was a distorted stiffener bracket on the structural ‘frame’ behind the pilot – ringed in red.

TE288 at Wigram was my best choice and it was with some delight, on my visit, to find that said bracket was still distorted and it was finally confirmed.

Mark

Dave
once again some excellent pics ! Was last there in about 2000, is the A4 still on display ?, or has Helen sold that also ?

I think that one was painted up as the one that W/C (later a/c) Fred Kinvig ejected out of at Ohakea.

Cheers Mark. As for the Spitfire section, that’s the only photo I took of it, and that’s the whole photo. In reality it’s oriiented wrongly. The display just has that cockpit section, which is set into a circular hole in the wall kind of arrangement. When you stand there, you look straight down on the pilot’s head, as if he’s flying past left to right and banked over so the wings are vertical. I hope that makes some sense.

The section came out of the moulds that the RNZAF owns. They moulded it off their Mk XVIe, and a replica from the mould is at Christchurch Airport. It’s the second one, the first was destroyed by an arsonist! The replica stands outside what was the Brevet Club (that has now moved into the RNAF Museum itself). I heard recently a third complete replica has been popped out of the moulds, this time for the Hamilton RNZAF Association. Apparently it is to be put up in Parana Park on Memorial Drive (where the Hamilton city Cenotaph stands).

I think this is smashing, because with the sharp decline in the wartime generation few things like this are getting done these days.

Anyway, back to the point… was there anything in particular that you wanted to know or see on that replica cockpit? I may be able to get someone to get a better photo if possible. Let me know asap as a mate is going down there this weekend.

Dave Homewood,

Excellent photographs.

Could you show us a bit more of the structure of the replica Spitfire cockpit.

Mark

OK, last one. This is the wreck of the Vickers Vildebeeste that is being restored very nicely. See more at their website here
http://www.airforcemuseum.co.nz/main/Restorations/

In Hangar 2 the restoration team are working away on an Oxford, a Sopwith Pup replica, a Vildebeeste and this beauty (sorry about the lighting, the sun was streaming through the hangar windows). P40E – estimated to have another four years work to go, as there are few volunteers and less money, but at least they do an excellent job. All restorations are done to a flyable state where they can. Yet none will actually fly in their care (the Avro 626 used to!):(

Plus, unlike when i was at Hendon, you can walk right round to the side of this one and check out her rear end!

And I really appreciate the thought they put into displaying the Hudson. I was thoroughly disappointed when I saw Hendon’d one because it was crammed in with a lot of other planes, and was on all three wheels. There was no intimacy with it. Here at Wigram they’d very cleverly used an authentic tail jack and thus lowered the nose so the public can get a sense of the interior, which is immaculate. Photos cannot do this one justice.

And now my all time favourite…this has to be the most remarkable resoration carried out in New Zealand I’d say. This is the nicest example of a Hudson I’ve seen anywhere, and I’ve seen a few. Believe it or not till 1985ish the poor old girl was a rusty old chicken coop!

Hi mmitch. They have around 30-35 aircraft on display, which is a big museum for NZ. A few are not fully restored, like the Catalina, but almost all are able to be seen by the public which is great because before Wigram closed many were stored where public access was impossible.

As for the pilots, I agree. I used to know the guy who made them all, and each and every one were modelled from people on the base, moulded from their faces . In fact, John, the guy who made them, is the the guy who the Skyhawk pilot is modelled on. He used to think of this as his little in-joke that ‘he’ was flying the Skyhawk when in reality he was a Safety and Surface Corporal.

Here is the world’s rarest aircraft (well…one of them) The one and only exisiting Avro 626. Behind it is the Anson, the Harvard, the Spitfire Mk XVIe and the Avenger with wing folded

Originally posted by mmitch
Excellent photos Dave. Nice to see a museum as far from us as Duxford and Hendon are to you. The ‘pilots’ set off the ‘planes too. How many airframes are there in the museum?
mmitch.

Just seen your other thread on Duxford 🙂
mmitch.

A view of the Aircraft Hall in No 1 Hangar. Bear in mind that for two very good reasons, flash photography is banned from the museum. The main reason is because the light breaks down artifacts, so things like paintwork, paperwork and even cloth can deteriorate with constant flshing apparently. Also, the museum has an excellent lighting set up that really show off the planes to full advantage, and flashing would disrupt this. So believe me the display looks better in person than in photos. A few of my shots didn’t come out because of no flash sadly.

Excellent photos Dave. Nice to see a museum as far from us as Duxford and Hendon are to you. The ‘pilots’ set off the ‘planes too. How many airframes are there in the museum?
mmitch.

This is an excellent scale model made by two of the elderly volunteer guides at the museum. It depicts Wigram in 1942, with loads of Oxfords, Harvards and Vildebeestes, etc. I ran the lens of the video camera around the rim of this model a few times, and when you watch it back from down at ‘eye-level’, it looks really impressive, just like flying over the real Wigram…almost (well, at least the model doesn’y have dog-box houses built all over the place like the base now!)

A Spitfire pilot

The Vampire fighter (they have a two seater too on display, and another vampire is on loan to the AFC at Wanaka)