A pre-World War II plane being built for Peter Jackson's King Kong movie will be housed at a new $3 million aviation museum in Blenheim when filming finishes next March.
Plans to build the Aviation Centre and Business Park at Omaka Aerodrome took flight yesterday, after it received a $2 million grant from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
To mark the occasion, the centre's creators flew to Wellington Airport in a restored 1938 Lockheed 12 aircraft to meet Jackson and Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton.
Jackson, who does not fly himself but has his own World War I aircraft at Omaka, got involved in the project before filming of The Lord of the Rings trilogy started in 1999.
"I'd love to learn to fly but I've never had the chance to concentrate on it ... and flying is something that if I was going to do it, I would want to concentrate on it," he said.
Instead, he settled for wheeling out his vintage craft every two years for air shows.
A World War I aviation buff, Jackson said he would bring in his special effects team and art department to help design, "in their spare time", an authentic hangar, complete with oil-drenched dirt floors, aviation artefacts, mess room and wax-works dummies in period uniforms.
"It's not just a museum ... it's a living environment. You'll be able to open up the hangar doors and wheel the planes out and fly them," he said.
"I've been collecting World War I memorabilia since I was 8.
"I can now get them out of the box they're stored in."
The replica 1930s Curtiss Helldiver being built for King Kong would be used as part of a static display at the museum.
"We need to build it and use it in the movie first, but then it will have a home at Omaka," Jackson said.
Developed in 1921, Omaka is rich in history, with aviation greats Charles Kingsford Smith, Ernle Clark, Jean Batten and Arthur Clouston either starting or finishing pioneering flights there.
Marlborough Aviation Heritage Centre Trust chairman David Dew said the centre would be built in time for Omaka's biennial Classic Fighters Airshow next April.
Mr Anderton said the centre was forecast to produce regional and national economic gains of up to 10 times its value over time.
- NZPA
Museum to house King Kong 'star'
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