ZK-AED  de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapide        (c/n  6305)

                                    

                                          The RNZAF operated five DH89's (NZ555-559) which were impressed from Cook Strait
                                          Airways in late 1939.  ZK-AED was one of them and became NZ556. It, along with most
                                          of the other Rapides was sent to Fiji for use as general reconnaissance aircraft.  It was broken
                                          up long before WW II ended.   The above shot shows it with Cook Strait before the war.
                                          It was destroyed by a hurricane (the storm, not the fighter) at Nausori on 20 Feb 1941.