For $85,000, you can fly home with a piece of aviation history

For more than three decades motorists on State Highway 1 through the central North Island couldn't miss the old aeroplane on the side of the road at Mangaweka.

Now, the owner of the world-famous-in-New-Zealand landmark wants to find it a new home.

The DC3's move to the Horowhenua town of Shannon from Mangaweka happened about two years ago and there it has sat without its wings or propellors, on top of containers, still the focus of plenty of cameras and curious looks.

This week owner Mintie Cottle put the plane on the market.

''I would have loved to build a million-dollar building to put it in.

"I keep a lot of NAC [National Airways Corporation] stuff, history - it would have been great... With the direction I'm going in I don't want to build that million-dollar building to put it in."

And the plane can't forever sit out in the elements.

"This is not Nevada or Arizona, where it's good for these."

The piece of aviation history started off as an air force plane in the 1940s, before it was named Poaka when flying for the National Airways Corporation.

Later it was called Skyline Kaikohe.

Its working life ended in Manawatū, before the move to Mangaweka, where Cottle bought it a few years ago.

With an asking price of about $85,000, he has had no firm offers yet, but his phone is constantly buzzing with inquiries.

He thinks it would make a good museum piece, including its interior, which could be fitted out with mannequins in period clothing.

"There're plenty of endless business opportunities for a financial purpose, but also for static display for their business.

"It's just out the gate. Where are you going to find another one? You're not going to make one out of paper mache."

Its 29-metre wing span has ruled out some interested parties.

"There're a lot of layers of paint on there. It needs a good clean," Cottle said.

"It's in great condition - all round it really is sound. It needs time spent on it, definitely, but there're enthusiasts out there who love these things.

"For the right person who buys it the enthusiasts will come in and they will happily work on it, I'm sure."

Wherever it goes, the move will require plenty of planning, as Cottle found for the road trip to Shannon. He said he moved it there to keep the plane safe from vandals.

"At one point I was going to get New Zealand's biggest chopper to lift it.

"Getting it from Mangaweka to here wouldn't have been a problem [for the] big chopper that does logging."

But there was a problem in that the plane, now called the Mangaweka Skyliner, was not allowed to be slung below a helicopter above main roads.

Back in the early 1980s when the DC3 moved from Palmerston North to Mangaweka, the rules were less stringent.

John Eames was part of consortium that bought it for $4000, and had it towed on the road, facing backwards, with its wings taken off.

"It was a different era too, I tell you. It was pretty big on the road. But the traffic control - these days you've got probably two utes with flashing lights and one behind.

"In 1984, my little Subaru station wagon with me and my wife in it were the lead car and that was all there was, really."

The idea was to have something that would stand out and put Mangaweka on the map, Eames said.

"It was bought by the Rangitīkei River Adventures Company that was recently formed at the time, in 1981.

"We were a bunch of farmers to be honest, but we started to get into tourism, which was lacking here, so we bought that on a whim.

"One of my partners said we should buy one of these. There were offered by Fieldair, who were retiring them from top dressing, and they were parked in Palmerston North."

It took a while to make the trip north.

"It didn't get up there until 1984. It was lifted into its position by the highway on 1 November. It caused a sensation."

Eames and his wife Viv ended up owning the plane outright, and it sat next to their cafe for 18 years - including when it had its memorable Cookie Time paint job.

Eames has fond recollections of the plane, which locals claimed as their own, and is interested to see what will happen next.

"We were perfectly comfortable ourselves about it leaving. Some of the townsfolk weren't. They thought it belonged to them, really, our aeroplane, but it never did.

"It only belonged to us, as in my wife and I in the finish."