No. 40 Squadron RNZAF

No. 40 Squadron RNZAF
Boeing 757 of the RNZAF in 2009.
Active	June 1943 – October 1947 December 1954 – present
Country	New Zealand
Branch	Royal New Zealand Air Force
Role	Strategic and Tactical Air Transport
Garrison/HQ	RNZAF Base Auckland
Motto(s)	Maori: Ki nga hau e wha English: To the four winds
Mascot(s)	Mariners compass star
Anniversaries	1 June
Equipment	2 x Boeing 757s 5 x C-130H Hercules
Engagements	World War II, Korean War, Malaya, Vietnam War, Rwanda, Somalia, Gulf War, East Timor, Solomon Islands, Iraq, Operation Enduring Freedom.
Commanders
Current commander	Wing Commander Andy Scott
Insignia
Squadron Badge	A Mariners compass representing the "Four winds."

No. 40 Squadron RNZAF is a transport squadron in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). It remains on active duty.

The squadron was formed at Whenuapai on 1 June 1943 as No. 40 Transport Squadron RNZAF. It was equipped with Dakota and Lockheed Lodestars and carried men and supplies to forward areas throughout the Pacific theatre. Within the squadron organisation was a ferry flight of aircrew which regularly flew delivery flights from the mainland United States and Hawaii to New Zealand of new aircraft such as the Catalina flying boat and Ventura. The squadron was disbanded on 31 October 1947 and most of its crews and aircraft were transferred to the government-owned National Airways Corporation.

No. 40 Squadron reformed on 8 December 1954 with four Handley Page Hastings, one of which had competed in the October 1953 London-Christchurch air race. The Squadron was supplemented with three Douglas DC-6 acquired from the defunct Australian airline, British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines by 1961. The three current Lockheed C-130H Hercules were purchased in 1965 and two more in 1968.

Three Boeing 727s were purchased second hand from Boeing in 1981, all ex-United Airlines. NZ7271 19892 entered service in July 1981 and was retired on 7 July 2003. (It became 3D-KMJ and then 9Q-CMP in Africa and was scrapped in 2005). NZ7272 19893 entered service in July 1981 and was retired to Woodbourne as an instructional airframe on 25 August 2003. NZ7273 19895 was the first 727 delivered, on 6 May 1981, but flew only 21 hours, being intended from the start to be a source of spare parts. It was retired 25 June 1981. The 727s were purchased by the administration of Sir Rob Muldoon and used by the fourth and fifth Labour governments, as well as the administration of Jenny Shipley. The Boeing 727s were replaced in 2003 by two Boeing 757s.