V.I.P. plane in service

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33032, 27 September 1972, Page 16

V.I.P. plane in service

The Ministry of Transport’s V.I.P. aircraft—a Fokker F 27 purchased late last yeai’ for about $600,000 — will be officially used for passengers for the first time this week-end when it brings the Governor-General designate (Sir Denis Blundell) to Christchurch to open the Town Hall on Saturday.

The Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) will be on board with Sir Denis Blundell. Purchased from All Nippon Airways of Japan, the Friendship has been at Christchurch airport since April awaiting the incorporation of a number of modifications needed to bring it up to the standard of the other two Friendships in the Civil Aviation Division’s calibration flight.

While these two Friendships are pure calibration aircraft the latest one is in reality a dual-purpose cali-bration-V.I.P. aircraft.

It was not until the aircraft arrived from Japan that N.A.C. engineers were able to determine what modifications had been done on the aircraft and how many more would be needed to bring it up to the rest of the calibration aircraft. Parts then had to be awaited for the modifications from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The second-hand Friendship has been repainted and equipped; it can now take its part in the calibration fleet for flight-checking work and flying training of Ministry staff, as well as for V.I.P. flying. It was test-flown on Sunday. For many years the Royal New Zealand Air Force used a specially equipped DC3 for V.I.P. flights within New Zealand. When the announcement was made of the Ministry’s purchase of the Friendship for this purpose there was a certain outrage that the service’s long-standing role had passed to another government department. Now the Air Force is cast in the humble role of baggage carrier.