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CAC Wackett

1941 COLD WAR WORLD WAR 2

CAC Wacker History

The CAC Wackett was a basic trainer aircraft designed and developed for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. CAC is probably best known for its CAC "Boomerang" fighter jets, which followed Wacker into aviation, which would be established in Australia during a particularly dangerous and turbulent time for the country. Japanese expansion in the Pacific is a real and growing threat to Australian sovereignty, and reducing foreign reliance on military supplies will prove beneficial in the long run.

Wackett eventually served in Australia, the Netherlands and Indonesia before retiring and finding a second life in the postwar years as privately owned and using aerial platforms to pollinate crops.

Specification 3/38 was delivered by the Royal Australian Air Force in 1938 to find a dedicated training platform for the new generation of Australian pilots. This type had to be a cost-effective solution that used basic design practices and provided tandem seating for two people (student and teacher).

Also, since the plane will be built entirely in Australia, it has to stick to a simple approach to harnessing the country's industrial prowess - ultimately relying on the use of some steel, wood and cloth throughout its construction.

Australia entered World War II on September 3, 1939, declaring war on Germany just days after Germany's brazen invasion of Poland. Ultimately, the war will kill nearly 1 million Australians, more than 27,000 of them. Australian troops fought alongside British and Commonwealth troops in Europe and North Africa, while closer to home they were also forced to work with alliances including the United States and Britain to contain and eventually defeat the Japanese Empire.

Australia proved to be a formidable force, especially in the early days of the Pacific campaign - before the arrival of the United States in 1942 - when Australia's coast was under direct threat from the Japanese.

The Commonwealth Aircraft Company, established in 1936 to manufacture aircraft engines and airframes, filed an application as the CA-2. The design was developed around a tubular fuselage with a steel base, while wood was used to make the skeleton of the wings. Cloth then covers the rear wing, while the front uses a metal skin.

Crew are seated side by side as required under a heavy framed canopy, which provides good visibility from both positions. The nose section is rather short, allowing for improved forward vision compared to contemporaries.

The wings are low-mounted attachments, and the landing gear is attached with a single-wheel main leg and a single-wheel tail leg.

By the end of 1938, the CAC facility itself was under construction, and production of two prototype airframes was not completed until September 1939. One prototype was equipped with a de Havilland "Gypsy Major" liquid-cooled inline-piston engine - the same engine as the famous 1932 de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer - and the other was equipped with a de Havilland "Jeep" The Race Six" liquid-cooled inline piston engine that powered the 1934 de Havilland Dragon Rapide.

The first flight was recorded on September 19, 1939, powered by Major Gypsy. The second prototype flew for the first time in November.

Tests found that the tables operated by the Gypsy Major performed poorly, the following modified variants of the Gypsy Six offer more. Therefore, it was decided to equip the model with American-made Warner Aircraft Corporation "Scarab" series radial piston engines to power the completed production line. The first prototype was then rebuilt in scarab form and continued to be tested. Eventually, the RAAF accepted the CAC design, codenamed CA-6 "Wackett", and signed a formal production order - the aircraft entered service in March 1941.

By this time, with Australia increasingly under threat from the Japanese, the situation across the Pacific had escalated to dangerous levels. Until the Americans formally entered the war on December 7 (the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor), Australia could rely on extensive outside help.

While the Royal Navy had dabbled in the Pacific, it was also trying to survive German offensives in Europe.

Early production of the Wacketts was hampered by shortages of engines and propellers, allowing engineers to modify the design before mass production of the cured airframe. CAC eventually produced around 200 Wacketts as the basic trainer for the RAAF, the last delivered in April 1942.

The Wacketts led the combat presence throughout the war, although their numbers were dwindling amid a growing number of other capable trainers arriving from overseas. This resulted in many being relegated to reserves and then stored until after the war (1945), and thirty examples were sold to the Netherlands for service in the Dutch East Indies. Still others end up in private hands and the civilian sector.

The Dutch airframe was then handed over to the newly formed Indonesia, which had been independent from Dutch rule from 1949.

World War II helped develop Australia in several important ways, including industry. Before the war it had no real heavy industrial base, which expanded in a short time as the war forced growth.

The Australian military also benefited from the conflict and was allowed to move beyond its original form. Schemes like Wackett and Boomerang are just to ensure independence from military products and to demonstrate that Australia is a modern nation.