{"id":3683,"date":"2025-04-08T19:34:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/?p=3683"},"modified":"2025-04-08T19:34:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:34:20","slug":"riat-1979-25-years-c-130-hercules-rnzaf-nz-7001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/?p=3683","title":{"rendered":"RIAT 1979 25 YEARS C-130 HERCULES RNZAF NZ 7001"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trophy has a <\/a>bit of a back story, so bear with us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hercules NZ7001 (also known as Charles) was sent to represent the RNZAF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 26 other air forces competing, all hoping their Hercules would come out best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the Kiwis started cleaning by hand, and they must have done a wonderful job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because, when the judges made their decision, NZ7001 was the best in show, winning the Concours D’Elegance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as well as flying the longest way, having no cleaning bay, NZ7001 was the oldest aircraft in the competition at 14 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Come along and see the exhibition – we’re open every day from 9.30am until 4.30pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And from Friday you’ll be able to see Charles in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS: The picture credit is Fred de Ruiter – isn’t it a fantastic photo of a gleaming NZ7001 from 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s to Charles – world beater and #extraordinaryaircraft<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#rnzaf<\/a>#rnzafpastandpresent<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3687,"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions\/3687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c-130herculesvrienden.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}