 | Fleet Air Arm |
| Fleet Air Arm |
Updated 6 December 2011
In a joint effort involving the RNZAF, RAAF and the RAN Heritage Collection, an ex-Royal New Zealand Air Force Douglas Skyhawk will arrive at HMAS Albatross, Nowra, in the first half of 2012. The chosen aircraft is a two-seater TA-4G, serialled N13-154911 (880) and identified as NZ6255 when in RNZAF service (see picture at right).
Upon return to Australia, it will be repainted in the grey/green camouflage scheme carried by the Skyhawks in their latter years of RAN service. The two-seater will go on display in the Fleet Air Arm Museum alongside the loaned US Navy single seat fighter that is configured as A-4G side number 882.
The Skyhawk, currently stored in New Zealand, was earmarked for return to Australia to become part of the heritage aircraft collection at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in an announcement by the NZ Government in April 2011 - a delight for former RAN pilots and groundcrew who worked the Skyhawk when it was in RAN service between 1967 and 1984.
Following the announcement by the NZ Defence Minister, the Director of the Australian Naval Heritage Collection, CMDR Shane Moore, said he was awaiting further information and instructions on the gifting arrangements.
"Until the specific airframe is identified, and consideration is given to an appropriate and significant date and place for the transfer, the Naval Heritage Collection and the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross are waiting with quiet anticipation and excitement," Terry Hetherington, manager of the museum, said today.
With the arrival of the ex-RNZAF Skyhawk, the FAA Museum will add another important heritage item to its world-class collection. It will go on display alongside the Grumman Tracker and Westland Wessex within the Museum's "Defending the Fleet 1968-1984" themed precinct.
The Skyhawk currently on display is a loan US Navy A-4B model that has been fashioned to replicate the RAN A-4G serial number N13-154903 (882). This aircraft may be returned to the USA, or loaned to another Australian institution with USN approval.
The RNZAF aircraft underwent significant airframe and avionics upgrades and were designated A-4K, and it is understood, at this early stage, that the gifted aircraft will be delivered by the New Zealand government in full RAN livery. It is likely that the chosen Skyhawk will be one of the seven remaining ex-RAN single-seater A-4s in the NZ inventory.
Following the decommissioning of the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, Australia's Skyhawk aircraft were sold to the New Zealand Air Force which operated them both in NZ and from the naval air station at Nowra.
The long-running saga of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's 17 mothballed Skyhawks came to an end with the announcement yesterday that nine of the jets had been earmarked for museums.
Although the NZ Government has tried to sell the Skyhawk fleet, no acceptable offer was received and "we will therefore offer eight of them to qualifying public museums in New Zealand and one to Australia, for heritage and display purposes," Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said.
"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 long-standing agreement that we would give one of the ex-Australian Skyhawks back."
Five more aircraft will be allocated on long-term loan to other qualifying aviation museums in New Zealand.
"The remaining airframes, engines, spares, ground support equipment, role-specific equipment, and documentation and publications will be sold separately through a request for proposals process. It is quite likely that the remaining aircraft will be reduced to spares. There has already been interest in this prospect, which is more in line with the realities of today's marketplace.
"The first four aircraft will be prepared for display immediately. All the aircraft and associated equipment, even those bound for museums, are still subject to consents that go back to the time when New Zealand acquired the jets. We will work to expedite that process," the Minister said.
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