Bollocks to no engine production or aluminium smetlting
The Story of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation
From "Technology in Australia (1788 - 1988)"
In the mid-thirties to the Australians took thir first steps to an independent aircraft industry with the formation of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) on 17 October 1936.
It arose from the initiative of Essington Lewis, who was at the time the Chief General Manager of BHP, and who formed a syndicate of BHP, Broken Hill Associated Smelters and G.M.H. to undertake a study leading to the establishment of military aircraft and engine manufacturing facilities in Australia. These companies were later joined by I.C.I., Electrolytic Zinc (for aluminium smelting, set up and in production by 1941) and Orient Steam Navigation Company.
The nucleus of the newly formed company was provided by L. J. Wackett's team, operating at the Tugan Aircraft premises in Sydney. This company was taken over by CAC and Wackett became its first manager. A factory was constructed at Fishermen's Bend in Melbourne and Wackett began to operate from the new premises in September, 1937. In order to enable rapid local production, a licenced design was adopted, both for the airframe (the North American NA33, later known as the Wirraway), and for the engine (Pratt and Whitney Single Wasp. These were being received from 1939, rated at 650 hp).
Whilst this is a historical review, in these days of rampant Canberra bureaucracy it is interesting to note the speed with which it was possible to operate when there were no government departments set up to 'assist' industry. Thus the first order was received in January 1937, some nine months before the factory was completed (this took less than a year) and the first aircraft and its Single Wasp engine were completed in March 1939 (low rated Moth engines were qalso commenced at about that time , some 18 months after the factory started operating. A total of 755 Wirraways were built in subsequent war years. These were an off the shelf design and were used in the opening months of the Pacific war by the RAAF as frontline equipment. I believe that a light bomber variant should have been designed in 1941, using the Twin Wasp engine similar to the Boomerang, but for an airframe configured for bombing.
In 1938 a requirement for an intermediary trainer for the R.A.A.F. arose and the Wackett team designed and built the Wackett trainer, which first flew in October 1939. It was subsequently re-engined and some 200 production trainers were built, with deliveries occurring between May 1941 and April 1942.
An interesting and innovative CAC design was the Woomera three seater reconnaissance bomber. Engineering work on this aircraft commenced in April 1940 and the first flight took place in September 1941. The Woomera had a number of ingenious features incorporated, the most interesting being the remotely controlled, power-operated gun turrets at the rear of each engine nacelle. Due to a change of government policy, this type was not ordered into production.
In order to counteract the supremacy of the Japanese Air Force in 1942, the CAC design staff employed the most powerful engine then available, the 1200 h.p. twin Wasp to power a new design of a small fighter. To save time, many existing Wirraway components were incorporated in the new design. Twin Wasps began to be received from about July 1941.
The new aircraft, named the Boomerang, first flew at the end of May 1942, precisely 14 weeks after rough drafts had been approved. 105 aircraft of this type were ordered off the drawing board and first production aircraft were delivered to the R.A.A.F. by September 1942. Further versions of the Boomerang had supercharged engines and a total of 250 aircraft of both types were built. There is no technological reason why this aircraft could not have been built in 1940, with imported twin wasps at first, followed by the licenced built version in July 1941. Money spent on the Buffalo could instead have been diverted to this local product, which would have benn significantly better that the buffaloes used in Malaya
The design of an advanced fighter (known as the CA15) commenced in July 1942 . It was originally designed for a U.S. engine, the 2,300 h.p. Pratt and Whitney R-2800, but this engine was not made available in 1942, with the Merlin engine not delivered in Australia until 1944 and the Griffon until 1945. Consequently, this advanced aircraft had to be re-designed in 1945 to accept the Rolls Royce Griffon engine (there had been proposals to equip it with the merlin but these were abandoned in 1944). The first flight occurred in March 1946. Whilst the advent of jet fighters prevented the CA-15 to be ordered for production, it was, for its time, a remarkable performance aircraft and was a state-of-the-art development.
We have to go back to 1939 again, to look at the third major Australian initiative in aviation. The spectre of the coming war caused the Commonwealth Government to think about setting up additional facilities specifically for the production of war planes. The Department of Aircraft Production was established and its production branch, known as the Beaufort Division, was set up at Fishermen's Bend, next to CAC. The Beaufort Division, under the control of John (later Sir John) Storey, one of the most prominent industrialists of that time, commenced operations in September, 1939 with an empty office and in May 1941 produced its first licence-built Beaufort bomber.
The innovations needed to put this aircraft into, and maintain in production, consisted of the replacement of the unobtainable British engine, the Taurus, with the locally produced twin-row Wasp engines. This was the main reason why the two stage Wasp was built (locally) ….to get the Beaforts operational. The first locally built, locally engined Beauforts rolled off the lines in October 1941. Local sources of supply had to be arranged for many sub-components (for example the airframes depended on locally smelted and worked aluminium, specifically set up for that purpose in 1940 which were originally to be imported). By August 1944 when its production ceased, 700 aircraft of this type had been delivered, allo with locally produced Twin Wasp engines. Towards the end of 1943, the licensed production of the fighter-bomber, the Beaufighter was put in hand and the first deliveries of the latter type commenced in May 1944. I forget the engines used for these, most were imported however. .
In 1944, studies began for the licensed manufacture of the Lancaster heavy bomber. This aircraft was rapidly improved into the Lincoln version and this was the version adopted for Australia. The first Lincoln flew in March 1946.
The most remarkable feature of the wartime history of the Australian aircraft industry was its impressive growth. From a handful of people in 1937 and without a developed base of sub-contractors, it grew to 5,000 in June 1940 and to a peak of some 44,000 people in 1944 operating in four main factories and several annexes. Sub-contractors accounted for another 10,000 people. This industry delivered some 3,500 aircraft of all types to the R.A.A.F. and, at the end of the war, was capable of designing and manufacturing aircraft equal to the best in the world.