A bridge too far in Skyhawks sale

A bridge in Picton is creating a major headache for the people selling the Air Force's fleet of Skyhawk fighter bombers.

The 14 Skyhawks are being sold to an American company and are likely to be loaded onto trucks and taken from the Woodbourne air base in Blenheim to Picton to be loaded onto a ship and taken to America.

But the problems a low bridge on the road from Woodbourne to Picton is likely to cause, have yet to be overcome.

Gareth Morgan, from the Auckland consultancy Ernst and Young, which was commissioned by the Government to sell the Skyhawk and Aermacchi fleets after they were decommissioned in 2001, said once the Skyhawks were loaded on trucks, the tail was too high to get under the bridge.

"There is a bridge where it goes clunk. We have got great minds thinking on those issues."

He said one option was to lift the Skyhawks off the trucks, take them under the bridge and load them back on the trucks.

In 1970 when the Skyhawks first arrived in New Zealand they were on an American assault ship as deck cargo. They were towed by road from the wharves in downtown Auckland along the western motorway to the Whenuapai air base.

The Skyhawks and Aermacchis are being bought by the American company to train pilots.

However, the sale cannot go ahead until the US State Department approves the final buyer because the Skyhawks are fitted with sensitive American military equipment. Some systems are virtually identical to the American F16 fighters.

The sale is now believed to be almost complete, including State Department approval and other transactional issues but none of the $155 million purchase price for both fleets has been paid.

The Skyhawks have been stored in an Air Force hangar at Woodbourne and although they are not in flying condition, the engines are regularly started and the systems are fired up to keep them operational.

The 16 Aermacchis are in a hangar at Ohakea and each is regularly flown.

"There has been a cycle of air testing and keeping them in good shape," said Mr Morgan.

"They do an average of three hours a month rolling them through all the aircraft. That's about 35 hours a year and that is so they can get the aircraft up every second or third month.

"Each aircraft will get up and hot and drive all the moisture out of it."

The Aermacchis would probably be flown to Tauranga and taken by road from the airfield to the port to be loaded onto a ship.

- NZPA