NZ crowd-funding campaign to save iconic Air New Zealand jumbo jet

A grassroots group is on a desperate mission to rescue the final 747 jumbo jet of its kind before it is sent to the scrap heap.

A grassroots group of Kiwis are desperately fighting to save an Air New Zealand jumbo jet from the scrap heap, with just days to go until its fate is sealed.

The aviation enthusiasts are racing to raise the $NZ2.5 million ($2.3 million) needed to bring home the Boeing 747 — the last of Air New Zealand’s iconic fleet — which is currently sitting in a storage facility in Roswell in the United States, waiting to be scrapped.

The group behind the “Bring Our Birds Home” campaign wants to buy the 747 and have it flown to New Zealand, where it will be preserved at the National Transport and Toy Museum in Wanaka as a piece of aviation history.

The group has 18 days to strike a deal with the plane’s current owners before it is scrapped.

“This is our one shot to reclaim this artefact, this icon of our social and transportation history for future generations,’’ Bring Our Birds Home spokesman Paul Brennan told the Otago Daily Times.

“We’ve got a shot, but it’s a hard one.’’

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An Air New Zealand Boeing 747 before the fleet was retired. Picture: New Zealand Herald / Paul Estcourt

The mighty 747 jumbo jet — dubbed the Queen of the Skies — was once the cornerstone of Air New Zealand’s international fleet.

But the iconic aircraft has been phased out by most major airlines, including Air New Zealand, Qantas and British Airways, in favour of long-range, wide body, twin-engine aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350.

The particular 747 jet the group hopes to save first joined the Air New Zealand fleet as a brand new plane in 1998 and was the last 747 to be retired by the carrier in 2014.

After that, it was sold to Spanish charter company Wamos Air, which leased it to other airlines including Indonesia’s Garuda and Saudi Arabian Airlines, before it was sent to Roswell for storage.

About two million New Zealanders are believed to have flown on that 747 jet, which was once famously painted with a Lord of the Rings scene.

The famous 747 once sported Lord of the Rings livery. Picture: Bring Our Birds Home

Bring Our Birds Home said it was the last of its kind on the planet.

“This (aeroplane) alone has carried well over two million Kiwis in her 15 years in our service – many, many New Zealanders took their first few steps out into the world on their classic Kiwi OE (overseas experience), through the door of this aeroplane,” the group said.

“Then there are the crews, the engineers, flight planners, ground handlers, at home and wherever she ventured in the world.

“Most of (the plane’s) life has been spent high above the earth at close to the speed of sound with her hundreds of passengers, warm, safe and comfortable, all with a story to tell, and she did this day in and day out. day in and day out. This aeroplane is a truly iconic nation building artefact of our social and transportation history.”

A crowd-funding campaign is rallying to raise the millions needed to buy the plane and transport it back to New Zealand.

Mr Brennan said if the deal fell through, any money raised so far would be returned.

If the plan goes ahead, the group will return the plane’s four engines back to the US.