Display Skyhawk

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 3

Display Skyhawk

By

DAVE WILSON

The Royal New Zealand Air Force will

gain another Skyhawk fighter this week, but this one will never fly or fight. The Skyhawk is a gift from the McDonnell . Douglas Corporation in America to the R.N.Z.A.F; Museum at Wigram, but its arrival at Wigram tomorrow will be as cargo in the belly of an R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules. Squadron Leader John Barry, the director of the R.N.Z.A.F. Museum, says the Skyhawk will become a central display in the atrium of the museum. But he says it will be some months before the aircraft goes on public display. This is because the Skyhawk is an A4L model, which needs modifications to resemble the earlier A4K Skyhawks, bought by the Air Force in 1970. Some of the parts, including a new C;

nose section, will come from the Project Kahu updating of R.N.Z.A.F. Skyhawks. Squadron Leader Barry says it is simpler to wait until mid-year, when these parts become available, than build the components. He expects the fighter, which will be painted to represent an R.N.Z.A.F. Skyhawk, will go on display in the latter half of the year. It will be housed in the atrium of the museum building, completing a display of historic aircraft arranged in a landing circuit. The gift Skyhawk has been retrieved from a huge open air aircraft mothball area in Tucson, Arizona. The Hercules will deliver its cargo direct to the museum door, flying from Tucson, through Honolulu, Rarotonga and then to Wigrajn.