RARE BEAST: Jem Aviation technician Dick Veale works on reassembling the Focke Wulf Fw190 for the Classic Fighters Airshow in Blenheim during Easter.

A vintage Ferrari of the skies is being reassembled at Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre at Blenheim.

The Focke Wulf Fw190 should be airworthy and ready to face off against its rival, the Supermarine Spitfire, at the Classic Fighters Airshow at Omaka Airfield during Easter weekend.

The Fw190 was a Luftwaffe workhorse fighter introduced in 1941 and used over France and Russia. The Spitfire, flown by the Royal Air Force, was the only aircraft to be a frontline fighter from the outbreak of the war to its conclusion in 1945.

Airshow organiser Graham Orphan said the Fw190 arrived in Marlborough on Tuesday fresh off a boat from Germany and will be the only one of its kind flying in the southern hemisphere.

The Fw190 in Blenheim will be based at Omaka indefinitely and is owned by an African-based Kiwi.

The Fw190 was introduced operationally over France in August 1941. This model is a replica, built in Germany, and when it took to the air in 2004 it was the first time a Fw190 had flown since the end of World War II.

The plane was then disassembled and several copies made.

It was put back together during the past two years and as soon as it was finished it was packed up and sent to Omaka,

"We're thrilled to bits; any time you're getting something transported around the world you're dealing with vagaries, delays of shipping and with things not going to plan.

"If it was any closer to Easter we'd be chewing our fingernails pretty badly."

An Auckland pilot was keen to get in the cockpit as soon as it was given the tick to fly by the Civil Aviation Authority, he said.

"He's fizzing to get himself into this thing.

"Most of the aircraft we operate are like Corollas through to Commodores – something like this is really a Ferrari, so any pilot worth his salt would want to get his backside into one."

The Fw190 will be accompanied at the airshow by two Spitfires – the first time two will take to the sky at the show.