Cool Auction this one! I have a family of starlings that are for sale. They are very sweet, caring parents, raising lovely little chicks but unfortunately they are living in my plane. So having the heart of gold that I do, I simply cannot evict them - so I have decided to put them up for sale, and give the buyer their home - my 1981 Embraer Banderante. You could build the ultimate kids playhouse, sleepout, flight simulator or just have the biggest garden ornament on your street. The wings come off for easy shifting, and the fuselage can be transported on a flat deck semi trailer. This old Banderante belonged to CityJet - a small airline that flew in NZ in the 90's. CityJet went out of business in a huge scandal involving the CAA and Air NZ, and was investigated by Ian Wishart - so the plane has some cool history. The Embraer Banderante was originally designed by the Brazilian military as a light troop transport aircraft. The rear door of the plane can be removed so paratroopers can jump out. The Banderante was also fully aerobatic and could be barrel rolled. It was converted to civilian use, and was hugely popular around the world, however there are no longer any Banderantes' flying in NZ. It is widely known that many were used in Columbia as cocaine transport aircraft. Definitely a NZ aviation icon. As you can see by the photos the old Banderante needs a loving new owner. My intentions were to build it into a cool sleepout type cabin to go along with my Fairchild Metroliner which I have done up for my kids. However I am simply just too busy with life to finish it. I don't want this to go to the scrap man - I would love it to go to someone who is interested into turning it into something cool. So my start price reflects the rough value of the aircraft in scrap. The last two photos are of the cockpit, and nose of the Metroliner which is 90% completed, and as you will see has come up really good considering the Metroliner was in a terrible state when I started.
This blog started off by focussing on NZ's smaller 3rd level airlines, past and present. It has evolved to trying to present some record of NZ's domestic airline operations and some of the larger charter operators, interesting NZ international airliner movements and photos I have taken around the country. Comments, corrections or contributions are welcome, Steve - westland831@gmail.com
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