Movie News

Air New Zealand Shows Off ‘Hobbit’ Plane

Posted by on November 23, 2012 at 5:51 pm

Air New Zealand unveiled their massive, newly made-up Hobbit plane this morning. Well technically, it’s made-up with dwarves!

The Boeing ER is 73 metres and the largest of the Air New Zealand planes. General Marketing Manager Mike Tod said, “At 830 square metres it’s the largest ever graphic to be applied to an aircraft.” It took nearly 400 man-hours to affix it to the plane and was designed at Weta Workshop by Gus Hunter and Nick Keller.

After the aircraft was revealed, it was set to depart for Los Angeles, and then London, returning to New Zealand in time for the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

So let’s get our counting done now! If you’re sitting in rows 12 or 13, that’s Thorin. 14 is Dwalin, 17 is Balin, 19-21 are Bofur, 22-23 are Fili, 26 is Kili, 28-29 are Oin, 30-32 are Gloin, 33-35 are Bifur, and from there it gets a little difficult to see from the above photo. But we do know that Bilbo, Gandalf, and Bag End adorn the back of the plane!

Our News Director, Arwen Kester, is in New Zealand now! In fact, she just posted her first update. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that she’ll get to fly this plane on her return trip!

The airline will be revealing a new Hobbit-inspired plane next year for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

What do you think of the plane’s new look?

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Author: Lily’s first experience with Tolkien was when the eccentric Mrs. H performed all of the characters from The Hobbit in her seventh grade class. In high school, she felt obliged to decline a second date with a boy who said he had no interest in reading The Lord of the Rings. In college, she unwisely decided to reread her beloved copy of The Hobbit during finals week, with only semi-disastrous results. When not writing for Middle-earth News, Lily tries not to unnerve her coworkers and family with her extreme geekery, but somehow, Star Wars, Star Trek, Sherlock, Merlin, Doctor Who, The Princess Bride, Back to the Future, superheroes, Disney movies, and of course, Tolkien, seem to have relevance in EVERY conversation.