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Air Force Museum Christchurch

The Air Force Museum in Christchurch is located on the Old Wigram Air Force Base in Sockburn. Its a short drive from the CBD, there are regular buses going past the entrance from town. It is just a few minutes up the road from the motel strip in Riccarton. So if you are in Christchurch for a few days there is no excuse for not checking it out.

The museum is Open daily from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm (except Christmas Day) & you should put aside a couple of hours to really enjoy it. Check out the regular short movie in the foyer theatre to get a good understanding of the history of the Air Force In New Zealand.

There are regular tours by experienced guides twice a day at 11.00am and 2.00pm. These are a must do because you get to see some behind the scenes displays that there currently isn't space for public display & there is also a tour of the restoration hanger.

When I visited the History Gallery was closed for a major renovation due to be completed in September 2008. I have been to the museum before & the History Gallery was one of the many highlights so it will be worth it once completed. Everything else is open as usual.

The tour of the restoration hanger was awesome to see the quality of the work being done. 

The Airspeed Oxford is a plane built mainly of wood but not just any wood. The wood has to come from Canada because the New Zealand species grows to fast & is not strong enough. Although this plane is only for display & not flight the team are still being this accurate in their work.

For the P40 Curtiss Kittyhawk they have got copies of the original design plans from the USA & are rebuilding the wings by hand. 

It is different for the Vickers Vildebeest which is being restored using old parts as there are no plans to work from.

It the storage hanger there is a large collection of aircraft, some of which you can wander through. There are also a couple of Navy choppers & a patrol boat - ask your guide what they are doing in an Air Force Museum.

The Main hanger behind the History Gallery is an old airbase hanger & has several displays of restored aircraft from Biplanes to Jet bombers. My favorite is the Spitfire, followed closely by the Mustang.  Many of the displays include static displays of the ground crew working on the aircraft.