The Harvard plane engine lying in a mountain stream near Wanaka could end up in the Wanaka Warbirds and Wheels Museum.
Museum board member Garth Hogan said this week he had been emailed by the man who found the engine last month - Ben Lund, of Palmerston North - to say he had no further interest in recovering the engine himself.
''We've been advised by Ben he supports us in getting it but having said that, we haven't even discussed it yet.''
The nine-cylinder Pratt and Whitney Wasp radial engine is from a Royal New Zealand Air Force Harvard that crashed in Mt Aspiring National Park in 1953, killing co-pilot Squadron Leader George Johnson (39), of Dunedin.
Mr Hogan believed the museum would be a fitting place for the engine, as it had ''significant value as far as an aviation event that occurred in the local area. And on top of that, it's a memorial for the guy who died.''
The museum could not pay for a helicopter to fly in to retrieve it but a helicopter operator doing another job in the same area might be able to help out.
The Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram, Christchurch, has also expressed an interest in the engine, provided it was donated.
