NZ A4-K Skyhawks will return to the skies

[willytheekid]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8314...ght-once-again

Eight A-4K Skyhawks that sat in plastic cocoons at Woodbourne since 2001 will next month return to the air in formation over Florida in the United States.

Draken International, which provides military training, last year picked up the Skyhawks for $7.9 million and has found the planes are in superb condition. They've got years of life left in their airframes and the radar and electronics aboard are among the best in the world.

Chief executive Jared Isaacman was downplaying the idea he got the better side of the deal.

"I don't think I would use the word bargain to describe the purchase of these aircraft," he said. "The New Zealand A-4K Skyhawks are the finest aircraft of their type ever built." But they had "little military value left", he said.

Draken had to pay the shipping and create engine maintenance contracts with Safe Air and Fieldair in New Zealand.


...The guy just bought one of the best "old school" multi fighters ever made...and hands down...the best A4's to have ever flown!



Kia kaha NZ...the Hawks live to fly another day



ps:...FUCK YOU HELEN CLARK!

[Crasherfromwayback]

Should still be flying here.

[BMWST?]

they gave a fantastic wee show at the castrol 6 hour or WSBK at manfeild one year

[HenryDorsetCase]

1960's tech. close air support perhaps but any jihadi with a Stinger can take one down. We should have picked up the F-16's we were offered.

[pzkpfw]

Amazing how we'd have saved money if we'd cleaned the poisons out of them and dumped them in the ocean. (Or recycled into Coke cans ...)

($35M to store, sell for $8M).

Hindsight.

[Macontour]

NIce thanks. A mate of mine years ago was in Kiwi Red. Way more brains than me. Oddly enough, he suffered from air sickness but not badly enough to stop him being a pilot. Used tolove the way they displayed at Air Shows and did the "sneaky" high speed low level pass from behind the crowd. That sudden high pitched tearing the sky apart sound as the jet screamed overhead or in front of the crowd was magic.

[Nova.]

Has anything replaced them yet?

[FJRider]

Has anything replaced them yet?

New Zealand's gone into stealth mode ...

[Nova.]

Must of gotten em off Iran then eh

[Zedder]

Cool Wtk, always good to see/hear them.

[Milts]

It was crazy to see how much the maintanence costs were while in storage vs the final sale costs.

1960's tech. close air support perhaps but any jihadi with a Stinger can take one down. We should have picked up the F-16's we were offered.

I would completely agree, except then we would be politcally obligated to take part (to a much larger extent) in wars which may or may not concern us, and may or may not be ethically justifiable.

As much as I love the idea of a fully functional air force the truth is 1) we aren't about to need it for self defence 2) any large scale military action overseas is likely to involve close work with nations which DO have a strong air force and 3) extended military intervention overseas is more likely to make us a target.

I don't think a small isolated nation like NZ can justify the huge expense require to purchase and maintain a combat capable air force especially in the current economic climate. If we had huge national wealth, then.... F/A18s all the way.

[slowpoke]

We should have picked up the F-16's we were offered.

And what would you have us do with them? The odd air show? The amount we can afford is good for fuck all else.

[HenryDorsetCase]

And what would you have us do with them? The odd air show? The amount we can afford is good for fuck all else.

what do you do with all those motorbikes you have? any more than one and you're a collector and no more justification is required..... they'd be cool just to have.

[BMWST?]

NIce thanks. A mate of mine years ago was in Kiwi Red. Way more brains than me. Oddly enough, he suffered from air sickness but not badly enough to stop him being a pilot. Used tolove the way they displayed at Air Shows and did the "sneaky" high speed low level pass from behind the crowd. That sudden high pitched tearing the sky apart sound as the jet screamed overhead or in front of the crowd was magic.

i remember that one !

[Zedder]

what do you do with all those motorbikes you have? any more than one and you're a collector and no more justification is required..... they'd be cool just to have.

Or another option HDC is to just have the New Zealand Warbirds Association jets on standby. That covers both airshows and defence jobs and would be much cheaper...