A new aviation exhibition has opened at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand in Wigram, placing the towering tail sections of two retired Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft on public display. The Tall Tails exhibition features the tails of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and P-3K2 Orion, aircraft that served New Zealand for decades in transport, surveillance, humanitarian and maritime roles.

The museum says the exhibition opened at 9.30am on 7 June and is free for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand. The display has also become a visible part of the museum's Home for Heroes fundraising campaign, which aims to support a larger home for the full Hercules and Orion aircraft.

The practical reason for the exhibition is striking: the aircraft are too large to fit in the museum's storage hangars with their tails attached. Rather than keeping the tail sections out of public view, the museum has turned them into a temporary feature that lets visitors appreciate the scale of the aircraft while the campaign for a larger display space continues.

The museum's public update thanked a wide group involved in the launch and installation, including museum staff, supporters, kaumatua Ruawhitu Pokaia, board chair Kevin Short, squadron aviators past and present, Harward and Son, engineering consultant Motovated and Titan Cranes. The list hints at the logistical challenge of preparing and lifting aircraft sections safely into an exhibition setting.

For Christchurch, Tall Tails adds another destination to the city's winter events calendar while connecting local visitors with national aviation history. Wigram already carries deep air-force heritage, and the exhibition gives families, veterans, aviation enthusiasts and casual visitors a new reason to return. The museum is open daily from 9.30am to 4.30pm, except Christmas Day.