The restoration of an extremely rare World War 2 Vickers Vildebeest plane at Christchurch's Air Force Museum has received a much-needed boost.
An equally rare Vickers Vincent biplane has landed on a 12-month loan to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand - an arrival that has the restoration team excited.
They have been painstakingly restoring an equally rare Vickers Vildebeest, a plane which has been in the Wigram collection for more than 20 years.
The two aircraft are identical in almost every detail, meaning the team can use the largely-restored Vincent as a 3D model to study, helping make the Vildebeest restoration project much easier.
Air Force Museum of New Zealand director Brett Marshall said the team has been searching for technical plans worldwide for years, but the rarity of the aircraft meant they have not been able to source any.
"We've got some photos and a few diagrams. So it's a little bit like having a 10,000-piece Mecano set, but you've got no instructions at all on how to actually put it together. So you've got to reverse engineer it."
"These are probably two of the rarest aircraft in the world. I'm not aware of another Vincent and as far as we're aware, this is the only Vildebeest in the world that's currently survived."
The dual-control Vildebeest NZ102 was one of a dozen Vildebeest torpedo bombers received new by the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1935.
The aircraft were used in a variety of roles including aircrew training, general reconnaissance and coastal defence.
The 15-man restoration team will focus on the restoration of the Vildebeest over the next 12 months, with the target of putting the historic war plane on static display at the museum.
- By Geoff Sloan
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
