If your passion is WW1 aircraft, you would be lucky to be a New Zealander... that is the home of the Vintage Aviator. This company is probably turning out more new WW1 aircraft than any one else in the world. Restoring old ones is difficult as the raw material has all but disappeared, so they just make new ones. Getting engines for these planes is tough too, so they just make new ones. What about machine guns? No WW1 aircraft is complete without them, so they make them too. Maybe not the shooting kind, they use them when they can get them, but for static aircraft and when no guns are available, they use their contacts in the movie prop industry to make detailed replicas of the original guns. And they've made lots of them.
There are plenty of airshows in New Zealand to show off their wares, so if you are in the neighborhood, you're one lucky guy. Being from the other side of the world, it would take me the better part of 2 days sitting in a jet to get there, and that would kill me. One consolation is that Wright Patterson Air Force Base has a dawn patrol airshow every year, the closest thing we have in Ohio.
