40,000 expected at Wings Over Wairarapa

More than 40,000 fans are expected to flood Hood Aerodrome next year for the 10th anniversary Trust House Wings Over Wairarapa 09 air show spectacular.
Event manager Liz Pollock said Wings Over Wairarapa, a brand owned and managed by the Masterton based New Zealand Sport & Vintage Aviation Society, is now firmly established as a must see biennial event on the Australasian aviation event calendar and the 10th anniversary show to be held on January 17 and 18 "promises to be something very special".
"The first Wings Over Wairarapa show took place in 1999 and since then it has grown significantly to the stage where we are conservatively expecting in excess of 40,000 to attend next years show." she said.
"Trust House Wings Over Wairarapa 2009 will feature displays from aircraft not only never before seen in the country but around the world, many with enormous historical significance."
Ms Pollock said Wings Over Wairarapa shares its home at Hood Aerodrome with some of the finest privately owned collections of WWI and WWII aircraft in the world providing a backdrop for the show that is hard to rival.
Over 70 aircraft will be displayed over the two days of the show representing a unique pictorial account of the history of aviation, she said.
"While celebrating the historical significance of WWI & WWII military aircraft, Trust House Wings Over Wairarapa 09 will also feature displays from other rarely seen vintage aircraft, heart-stopping agricultural displays, gliding, commercial & helicopter displays, home builts, microlights, gyrocopters, jet formations & thrilling aerobatics truly offering something for everyone."
Three replica SE5A fighters, along with a Sopwith Camel, a Sopwith Triplane and a Bristol Fighter will fly a keynote display at the show, honouring the aviators of WWI, which will be the first time since the start of the modern Warbirds displays that three SE5A fighters have flown together anywhere in the world.
The Sopwith Triplane will also for the first time be on display at Hood during with yet another first promised through a unique Spitfire Mark IX, which is being displayed for the first time anywhere in New Zealand as a tribute to Colin Gray.
The Spitfire will be painted in the desert colours and marking of the aircraft flown by Gray on his way to becoming New Zealand's highest scoring fighter pilot of WWII.
Ms Pollock said the flying each day will culminate in a dramatic pyrotechnic display and mock air field attack lighting up the skies and thrilling the crowds.
Tickets to Trust House Wings Over Wairarapa 09 are on sale through all Ticketek retail outlets, online by phoning 0800 TICKETEK or online at www.ticketek.co.nz.
Trust House, Williams and Adams, Solid Gold FM, Mobil Aviation, Kaurilands Aviation, Tranzmetro, Tui Brewery and the Wairarapa Times Age proudly support Trust House Wings Over Wairarapa.