Places



Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre


This post was published on Saturday 12 January 2019.

Just outside Blenheim is a world-class aviation museum, which opened in 2006. Due to Sir Peter Jackson’s interest in aviation, he is now the chair of the trust which manages the museum, and his involvement meant the exhibition was put together using the expertise of Weta Workshop and other movie industry resources – which really shows. It is a stunning place – if only for the lighting, let alone the planes and memorabilia!

At the moment it covers the First and Second World Wars, and it is fascinating to see how quickly plane design leapt forward during the First World War, driven by the requirements of new forms of warfare.

The Red Baron defeated

One particularly interesting section is the area dedicated to Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron – including one of the crosses from the plane in which he was finally shot down.

There is a rather grizzly scene set up with mannequins, which shows how the Allied soldiers picked apart his plane (which was actually in good condition after his crash landing) and his clothing, for mementoes of the famous Baron.

I have tried to identify all the planes from the collection below...

Outside in the airfield there is an Airsapade DC-3, in a rather stunning setting, as you can see from this picture:

We had a fantastic time at the museum, it was well worth a visit. We must have spent at least three hours walking round taking it all in.