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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