This captivating hardback book includes beautiful new photographs, as well as archival imagery revealing a truly special and important celebration of planes and their people.
Tiger Moths, Waco Taperwings, Beechcraft Staggerwings, Spitfires, Mosquitoes, and Mustangs all take flight in this book about our ongoing love affair with winged wonders.
Following the exploits of Richard Pearse and shining a light on other local pioneers—Herbert Pitcher, Jean Batten, and Sir Tim Wallis among them—photographer and author Ivor Wilkins examines the machines from bygone eras, celebrating those who lovingly restore and maintain them in the modern day.
Meticulously researched, Ivor has travelled the country in pursuit of some of the most interesting and monumental collections of classic aeroplanes.
“The main purpose of this project has been not to document every technical detail, nor to record every classic aeroplane flying in New Zealand skies. Rather, it has sought to represent a community of dedicated people and their aeroplanes, to celebrate their passion and tell their stories,” Ivor says.
“New Zealand is blessed with some extraordinarily talented people, who have retained, or accumulated the skills to restore and maintain old aeroplanes.
"Projects range from estorations, sometimes starting with a motley collection of bits, barely identifiable but sufficient to establish an authentic identity; to replicas, which look the part but have no provenance and often include modern or unrelated components; to reproductions, which are built precisely according to original plans and specifications in every respect.”
NZMCD is giving away a copy of Ivor Wilkins' Classic Planes. Enter our competition to be in to win. Competition ends on 4 May 2018.
