https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/wanaka/dc ... collection
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
A campaign to repatriate five historic airliners and display them at the National Transport and Toy Museum in Wanaka is close to securing its first target, a Douglas DC-8 currently languishing in Manaus, Brazil.
`Bring Our Birds Home' campaign head Paul Brennan said the company that owned the plane, Infranero, approved of the sale and the group was awaiting clarification about how to go about the transaction.
But the campaign is not stopping there. The aircraft are set to turn from forgotten pieces of metal into TV stars.
The group has a deal with Nik Coleman Television to film the recovery to restoration phases for the show Plane Resurrection, broadcast worldwide on Netflix.
Mr Brennan said the story was likely to be told across two series of the show.
Plans for filming would begin once the group had secured the DC-8 in Manaus.
Mr Brennan said filming was likely to take 18 months to two years and be screened about 2020.
He said he had already filmed some behind-the-scenes footage so the story was likely to be ``really good viewing'' once Mr Coleman became involved.
Proceeds earned from the show would probably accelerate the recovery process of the other planes, Mr Brennan said.
The other aircraft are a DC-10, a Lockheed Electra, Boeing 737 and 747, the latter two of which are still in service.
Mr Brennan will discuss the fate the DC-10, which is in Havana, when he meets Cuban ambassador Mario Alzugaray on Wednesday.
He hoped it could be returned to New Zealand as a gift to the country from Cuba, as the plane is owned by the Cuban Government.
Mr Brennan would like to see the three-engined jet brought back to Wanaka and put on display with other passenger planes previously operated in New Zealand.
He said the DC-8 and DC-10 could be on display within five to seven years.
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