Pilot Doug Brooker walked away unhurt from the crash at Ardmore Airport in Auckland, when his 1943 Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX bounced during a routine landing, slid 50m on its belly and finished up nose down, with its propeller broken, wheels buckled, and wings damaged.
The Spitfire's crash came two weeks after the aircraft was deemed flightworthy, following repairs from a previous crash in January, NZPA reported.
Warbirds Over Wanaka event manager Mandy Deans said she had been in contact with Mr Brooker by email and that the Auckland businessman was "OK but shaken", after the crash.
Warbirds Over Wanaka organisers hoped the Supermarine Spitfire - estimated to be worth more than $3 million and one of only five left flying in the world - would be repaired for the Easter airshow.
"We think it will be fixed by February or March and we have our fingers crossed.
"Time will tell, though," Ms Deans said.
Mr Brooker's crash landing has wrecked plans for an appearance by New Zealand's two Spitfires at the Warbirds Over Wairarapa airshow in January.
It was the Auckland pilot's second crash landing in the Spitfire, after he also damaged the plane after a flight at Hood Aerodrome, near Masterton, in January.
A semi-retired computer company developer, Mr Brooker was an aerial aerobatics champion in 2006.
The Spitfire was scheduled to appear at the Warbirds Over Wanaka 2007 airshow, but was impounded by customs officials, last February, when Mr Brooker tried to import the plane from the United States.
It eventually arrived in New Zealand in September.
The other Spitfire, planned to feature at next Easter's Wanaka airshow and owned by the family of New Zealand fighter pilot Alan Deere who served with the Royal Air Force, was still scheduled to appear, Ms Deans said.
There was no contingency plan to replace Mr Brooker's Spitfire with another vintage aircraft at Warbirds Over Wanaka, should it not be fixed in time, she said.
The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating Thursday's Spitfire crash-landing.
