Helen’s legacy

Wayne Mapp has announced:

The long-running saga of the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s 17 mothballed Skyhawks has come to an end, with nine of the jets being earmarked for museums, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp announced today.

A sad end to the proud strike wing of the RNZAF.

“The Government has made every effort to sell the Skyhawk fleet but no acceptable offers have been received. We will therefore offer eight of them to qualifying public museums in New Zealand and one to Australia, for heritage and display purposes,” he said.

I like John Key’s suggestion that we give Wills and Kate matching his and hers skyhawks. I reckon William would love it!

“Homes for four of the aircraft are already determined. Two aircraft (one single-seat and one two-seat) will go to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram. Another will go to the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland. A fourth will go to the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Arm Museum at Nowra, Australia. This fulfils a longstanding agreement that we would give one of the ex-Australian Skyhawks back to them.

“Five more aircraft will be allocated on long-term loan to other qualifying aviation museums in New Zealand. This will ensure that New Zealanders across the country will be able to see the aircraft. Negotiations are under way with qualifying museums that have expressed interest.

I actually quite like the fact they will be in museums. I just don’t like the fact that we’ve paid millions of dollars keeping them in storgae for a decade, while trying to sell them.