Aviation engineers have given the air force's mothballed fighter jets a clean bill of health after they pulled one apart to check it for water damage.
The Skyhawk was one of 17 stored with a protective latex coating at the Woodbourne air base near Blenheim.
They have been in the open since they were moved out of a hangar in December 2007, and last month Associate Defence Minister Heather Roy confirmed some had been damaged by the weather.
The Labour government decommissioned the air force's air combat wing in 2001 and the Skyhawks had been on the market since then.
Ms Roy told NZPA during a tour of the Devonport naval base in Auckland with Defence Minister Dr Wayne Mapp last month, there had been "a little deterioration but no more than you would expect under the circumstances".
Yesterday Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee was told some of the aircraft canopies had not sealed properly after a routine maintenance check and some water had got inside the cockpits.
The aircraft were routinely maintained by a civilian contractor.
"As part of this ongoing maintenance programme, an aircraft was disassembled and subjected to a detailed structural survey.
"This deep-level survey found the airframe to be in excellent condition with no corrosion of any significance found," the select committee was told.
"The routine maintenance and this deep-level survey confirm that the Skyhawk fleet remain in excellent condition for sale." In August last year then defence minister Phil Goff said he had been assured by the United States government it would approve the sale of the Skyhawks within a few months.
The fleet of Skyhawks was sold for $155 million to an American company but the sale had been held up by the US State Department, which must approve any sale of aircraft with American military avionics.
