Nieuw Zeeland Luchtmacht /RNZAF

NZ Defence Force 

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Support to Papua New Guinea With our eyes in the sky and our people on the ground, we’ve been working hard to assess damage and deliver humanitarian aid stores to communities in Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville hit hard by Tropical Cyclone Maila.

When the request first came from the Government of Papua New Guinea last week, our Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon carried out surveillance flights to provide authorities with imagery of the damage.

This informed authorities of what disaster relief stores were required and where, before our Deployable Joint Interagency Task Force joined forces with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF), National Disaster Centre, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Defence Force, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) to deliver over 13,607 kgs of stores made up of food, tarpaulins, generators, chainsaws, agriculture tool kits, shelter tool kits, mother and infant kits and family hygiene kits to Milne Bay, Bougainville and East New Britain using our C-130J aircraft.

Over the coming days, our NH90 helicopters will work alongside the PNGDF Air Transport Wing and Provincial Disaster Centres to deliver stores to isolated communities.

We stand ready to assist our Pacific whanau in times of need.

CPL M Butcher

A couple of phone pics,from a hot and busy afternoon at Brize Norton.Nice to see the New Zealand Herk credits Terry Matthews Thank You!!

Press Release – We’re expanding our C-130H Hercules fleet to 10 aircraft with the acquisition of four from the New Zealand Defence Force. These legendary planes will be converted at our Thermal, Calif., base and fitted with our RADS-XXL tank system—the world’s highest-capacity aerial firefighting tank (4,000 gallons per drop).

With this expansion, we’re strengthening our global wildfire response and continuing our mission to protect lives, communities, and critical resources. #coulsonaviation#aerialfirefighting#c130https://f.mtr.cool/kcoktcnnk

EXHIBITION OPEN! Our Mighty Hercules exhibition is now open – and thanks to No. 40 Squadron RNZAF there is a very special trophy as its centrepiece.

The trophy has a bit of a back story, so bear with us!

Back in 1979 Lockheed decided to celebrate 25 years of C-130 Hercules production with a special competition to find the best example of the aircraft at the International Air Tattoo being held at Greenham Common in England.

Hercules NZ7001 (also known as Charles) was sent to represent the RNZAF.

There were 26 other air forces competing, all hoping their Hercules would come out best.

Before it left Whenuapai NZ7001 was cleaned to within an inch of its life, but when it landed all the cleaning bays were full of crews getting their aircraft ready.

So the Kiwis started cleaning by hand, and they must have done a wonderful job.

Because, when the judges made their decision, NZ7001 was the best in show, winning the Concours D’Elegance.

And, as well as flying the longest way, having no cleaning bay, NZ7001 was the oldest aircraft in the competition at 14 years.

The trophy normally takes pride of place in No. 40 Squadron’s hangar, but has been lent to us for this special exhibition.

Come along and see the exhibition – we’re open every day from 9.30am until 4.30pm.

And from Friday you’ll be able to see Charles in person.

PS: The picture credit is Fred de Ruiter – isn’t it a fantastic photo of a gleaming NZ7001 from 1979.

Here’s to Charles – world beater and #extraordinaryaircraft!

#rnzaf#rnzafpastandpresent

New Zealand’s C-130J fleet delivered

Air Force Museum of New Zealand

19 november om 18:22  · 

HERC YEAH! Our new film about the extraordinary Lockheed C-130H Hercules is now in the works.

And we’d like to say a huge thank you to No. 40 Squadron for hosting us at Whenuapai, taking part in the filming and for providing NZ7002 as the perfect cinematic backdrop last week.

Also on our thank you list is retired Wing Commander Gordon Ragg, one of the young pilots who flew NZ7003 on its delivery flight in 1965.

Gordon generously gave us his time to recount his memories of what it was like to fly the brand-new Hercules all those years ago, and what a contrast it was to the piston-engined Hastings and DC-6s.

The last of the fleet of C-130Hs is due to retire in January, having served the RNZAF for almost six decades.

From Antarctica to Afghanistan the Hercs have done it all, and we can’t wait to tell their story with documentary maker Belmont Productions.

We will be putting together an exhibiton to go with the film, similar to the one we have running currently to pay tribute to our other extraordinary aircraft – the P-3K2 Orion.

In case you haven’t already seen it here’s the Orion story – https://youtu.be/IFzp9YtA-2Y – and we look forward to doing the same for the Herc.

#extraordinaryaircraft#C130HHercules#rnzaf#lockheed#p3orion

AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND September 29, 2024. A second and third new Lockheed Martin C-130J aircraft arrived at RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai) today thank you airflownnz