World's first billboard to be delivered by pigeons
25 Nov 2007
Hundreds of homing pigeons are helping to promote aviation history, crossing the Cook Strait to deliver pieces of a billboard.
289 pigeons have been released by Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim and are making their way to Wellington with a small piece of billboard strapped to each of their legs.
The billboard, located in a central Wellington site, is slowly being pieced together as the birds arrive. The Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre hopes the display will entice Wellingtonians to visit the Centre over the Christmas period.
Chief Executive, Jane Orphan says the stunt also celebrates the important role homing pigeons played during World War One.
''Authenticity is everything in our exhibits, so it was a natural choice to deliver our billboard to Wellington by the most authentic World War One means - homing pigeon,'' says Orphan.
''Communications technology was still very rudimentary during World War One, so pigeons were used extensively for communicating to and from the battlefront. Over 100,000 pigeons were used during the war and they were incredibly reliable - 95% got through to their destinations with their messages.''
The Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre promotes aviation history through its world-class collection of World War One fighter planes. Planes are displayed in life-like exhibits created by Weta Workshop. The Centre is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best World War One aviation experiences.
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