It may never have flown but, like its real cousins, a composite Skyhawk fighter bomber continues to attract controversy at its open air spot at the Air Force's Ohakea air base.
The Skyhawk, with the fake number NZ6257, was made up from discarded bits and pieces of real aircraft, as a
memorial to the Air Force's air combat wing of Skyhawks which were mothballed in December 2001 and put on the market. The mothballed Skyhawk fleet has yet to find a buyer.
However, it has been sitting in the open at Ohakea beside an old Strikemaster training aircraft and both aircraft are deteriorating.
The Air Force museum says they are regularly cleaned and maintained but aviation enthusiasts say they need to go under cover.
The composite Skyhawk, a two-seater model, was put together after a group of enthusiasts at Ohakea decided the country needed something to remind it of the Skyhawk era.
An American Skyhawk which never flew for the RNZAF, is on display in RNZAF colours at the Air Force Museum at Wigram in Christchurch but the Ohakea group decided one was needed at the former strike base.
Peter Calkin, who once ran the Ohakea museum and exhibition centre, said the decision to dump the Skyhawks "sucked the guts out of the air force. It killed it dead and it still hasn't recovered."
He said something was needed as a permanent reminder to the "most significant airplane ever to happen in New Zealand.
"We had an old fuselage at the museum and we started collecting old bits as they became unservicable -- as they came off the Skyhawks broken.
"It looks like a real Skyhawk sitting there but it is just am empty shell. It's brilliant."
Mr Calkin said it was "the crime of the century," not to have the Ohakea aircraft under cover.
Another former air force man said the Skyhawk and the Strikemaster were seriously corroding in the weather.
However, Therese Angelo, director of the Air Force museum, which runs Wigram and Ohakea, said nothing could be done until the air force decided where people and services would go once the air force consolidated its operational activities at Ohakea.
She said that decision may be made by the middle of next year and the museum was keen to see the aircraft go under cover.
"There is nothing we can do about looking at development of the exhibition centre until the RNZAF makes its plans clear."
- NZPA
Fake Skyhawk continues to attract controversy
It may never have flown but, like its real cousins, a composite Skyhawk fighter bomber continues to attract controversy at its open air spot at the Air Force's Ohakea air base.
The Skyhawk, with the fake number NZ6257, was made up from discarded bits and pieces of real aircraft, as a
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