29 Nov 07 This morning, the final pieces of a billboard promoting the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre were added by Richard Taylor, personally delivered by over 200 carrier pigeons!

The world's first advertising billboard delivered by pigeon left Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim on Friday aboard 289 homing pigeons and was completed this morning by Weta Workshop Director Richard Taylor.

Each of the 289 pigeons carried a small piece of the billboard strapped to its leg. The birds flew to Wellington where the billboard was pieced together over a period of days in a prominent, central Wellington site, on the corner of Dixon and Victoria Streets. The purpose of the billboard is to encourage Wellingtonians to visit Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre's world-class collection of World War One fighter planes over the Christmas period.

The Centre opened in December 2006, and features a collection of aircraft in lifelike exhibits. It is widely acknowledged as one of the world's best World War One aviation experiences. Weta Workshop created many of the props, costuming and mannequins for the museum.

Jane Orphan from the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, said delivering the billboard by pigeon is a celebration of the important role played by homing pigeons 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," she said. "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 most famous homing pigeons of World War One was Cher Ami, who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre during the battle of Argonne in October 1918. Under heavy enemy fire, and despite being blinded in one eye, shot through the breast and having a leg dangling by a tendon, Cher Ami delivered a message from the front line to the US 77th Division HQ that saved 194 men of the "lost battalion".

Watch this video, featuring Jane Orphan speaking about the billboard, and Richard applying the last pieces.

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