Air Force Red Checkers to Fly Over Auckland Waterfront

21 March 2012

Air Force Red Checkers to Fly Over Auckland Waterfront

The Air Force Red Checkers team will perform an aerobatic display over the Auckland Waterfront on Sunday 25 March as part of its national tour to celebrate 75 years the RNZAF.

The Red Checkers will be flying to towns and cities across the North and South Islands through to April.

The RNZAF has a long history with Auckland. The Walsh Brothers opened a flying school at Kohimaramara during WWI, training pilots for the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. In 1918 those two services were amalgamated to form the RAF.

The New Zealand Permanent Air Force, which became the RNZAF during the 1930s, opened a combined land- and sea-plane station at Hobsonville in 1929. And from 1938 work began on a military bomber airfield at Whenuapai, which opened in 1940 and remains a major base for the RNZAF today.

During the Second World War other air stations were opened in the Auckland region, at Mangere, Ardmore and Seagrove, while Swanson became the centre for ground combat training by Air Force personnel being sent into the Pacific islands. Appropriately, Ardmore today is the home of a number of privately-owned ‘Warbird’ aircraft.

What: Red Checkers aerobatic display (weather permitting)
Where: Auckland waterfront
When: Sunday 25 March at approximately 11.00am

Visit www.airforce.mil.nz and click on ‘What’s On’ for the Red Checkers flying schedule in 2012.

ENDS

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