The same pyrotechnics team which provided a stunning fireworks display at the Rugby World Cup is helping to reinvent scenes from World War Two at the Tauranga Airshow.

Waikato based Dr Martin Van Tiel is providing the special effects for the battlefield re-enactment at the event on January 28-29.

Fireballs fire from the ground at the Tauranga Airshow in 2010.

Martin has worked at airshows previously, supplying special effects for events like Warbirds Over Wanaka.

His team also conducted the New Year's Eve fireworks display in Tauranga.

Martin enjoys entertaining crowds and simulating the fire and bomb effects that would have been seen during a World War Two battle.

'At the end of the day it's about entertaining everyone,” says Martin, 'to give people something they don't normally see very often, just trying to tell the story really.”

'People can expect to see pyrotechnic effects that link in with a battle scene, giving them a bigger sense of what would have taken place during a WW2 battle.”

Tauranga Airshow spectators can expect to see fireballs, anti-aircraft flak simulations and dogfight effect pyrotechnics to make it appear as if planes are shooting at each another.

He says the most outstanding visual effect at Tauranga's ‘Classics of the Sky' show will be the flaming fireballs.

'We have a wall of fire about 200m long – last time I think they saw it all the way from Bethlehem.”

The fireworks display put on by Van Tiel Pyrotechnics Ltd following the final of the Rugby World Cup 2011

Each fireball is about 20m high, with 15 releases spread across 200m of the area opposite the runway at Tauranga Airport.

'We have a special explosive charge that fires fuel and ignites it into the air – we are essentially recycling some fuel and launching it into the air.”

Computer operated, the pyrotechnic display is a technical and highly skilled art that relies on the perfect synchronisation of aircraft flybys and release of effects.

'It's quite technical; we have to coordinate with the warbirds and their flight path and the types of planes they are using.”

Martin says the warbirds supply a flight plan so he knows which planes are coming in and when.

All of the pyrotechnics are manufactured specially for the event, which Martin says takes about two weeks.

'Fireworks are usually designed around night time, so a lot of the effects, if we used those during the day wouldn't be that spectacular.”

The Tauranga Airshow, ‘Classics of the Sky' is on January 28 and 29 at the Tauranga Airport.