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4 January 2016

Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

Today we finally went to see Sir Peter Jackson’s collection of WW1 aircraft and artifacts in the “Knights of the Sky” exhibition at “Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre”.
There were lots of amazing life-like sets (which were created by Wingnut Films and Weta Workshop). Some scenes recreated an incident that actually happened in the war. There was rare memorabilia on display, such as flying suits, various pilots’ uniforms, logbooks, aircraft insignia, artworks etc. One item that struck me in particular was a letter sent to the parents of a 22-year pilot who was killed in action (see photo below).
The sets were incredible…you could see that the planes were so basic at the beginning of the war, and then how they‘d changed in a short period of time at the end of the war.
So many things stood out to me … such as; the wooden propellers (and the craftsmanship involved), the thin wooden plane’s wheels, the fabric that the wings were covered in, the basic design of the planes, and the inexperience of the pilots.
It shocked me to learn that the Wright brothers first flew in December 1903, and Louis Bleriot flew the English Channel in 1909, and then WW1 began 5 years later, when flying was still a dangerous novelty. The pilots were so young, so inexperienced and flying such basically constructed planes!
There was a setting of the crash scene of Red Baron’s plane, which depicts the death of Manfred von Richthofen on the 21st April 1918. The Baron had been mortally wounded by ground fire while pursuing a Sopwith Camel at a low level. The German ace who was barely able to hold onto consciousness managed to crash land the aircraft before he died. The display shows the crashed, Fokker Triplane with the Baron lying beside it as Australian ground troops tore the Triplane apart for souvenirs (just as it happened 89 years ago).

This is an amazing exhibition, one we easily spent 2 hours at. If you are ever in Blenheim we highly recommend having a look.














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