January 1975
WITH the maritime, strike and long range transport segments of the RNZAF reasonably well set up with equipment for the for-seeable future attention has turned to the need for new aircraft in the short/medium range transport field. This has been highlighted in recent times by a study of a replacement for the VIP Dakotas operated by No 42 Squadron. In this article WINGS takes a look at the current state of the RNZAF's short/medium range transport aircraft and what could be on the horizon/far away in the future (tick one) to replace them
ONE of a number of new glider types to be imported into New Zealand of late is the Schleicher ASW-17 high performance sailplane ZK-GKO, owned by the well-known Rotorua glider pilot, Faranty Desborough. In WINGS first flight test of a glider, Mr Desborough describes his new aeroplane and how it flies.
"APART from being one of the most notorious stretches of water in the world, Cook Strait holds a facination for men of daring. It cries out to be conquered — and conquered it has been in many ways. "However, the fact that one of man's earliest forms of flight, the balloon, should be one of the last, so far, to achieve this particular crossing is of more than passing interest in this jet age.
JUST 20 years ago next May, in 1954, the first United States Air Force jet fighters to visit New Zealand touched down at RNZAF Station Ohakea.
 February 1975 |
 December 1974 |
 December 2018 |