Warbird Information Exchange

Not likely to be well known as a type by many here, but I have a shed with a flock of CAC CA-6 Wackett Trainer parts waiting for me to get them into close formation and back into the air.

It is named the Wackett Trainer in honour of Sir Lawrence Wackett General Manager of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation who designed and built it.

The Wackett was the first in-house design of the Australian manufacturer Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, designed in 1938, prototype flew in 1939 with a Gipsy Major, later replaced with a Gipsy Six, the 200 production variants had 165 HP Warner Scarabs (similar to Fairchild 24W).


Looking at first glance like a shrunk down Wirraway, they had a steel tube frame and a one piece wooden wing, and with an inline engine originally looked like a "pre-war" Chipmunk, they were an advanced elementary trainer for the late 1930's with enclosed cockpit, variable pitch prop and dummy retractable undercarriage (fixed gear but with dummy internal retract controls).

contempories are probably the PT13? Cornell? etc

Its higher cost and non-stadardisation in the EATS program lead to mass production of the DH Tiger Moth in Australia (had there been no war the Wackett may have caused no Tigers to be constructed in Australia.)

The two hundred produced went on to be used in elementary flying schools next to Tigers but became the main Wireless Airgunnery school aircraft for radio training.

Urgent development of the Boomerang in response to Japan's entry into the war resulted in the first Boomerang rolling down the production line after the last Wackett in 1942.

The Wackett has the distinction of being the first mass produced Australian design, the first Australian Design to see major service in the RAAF, and the first Australian Design to see service in another air force (30 used by the NEIAF post world war two). A further 40 flew on the civil register after WWII.

Currently 4 exist in static display in Australia, and none yet flying, but 3 under eventual rebuild to fly.

link below is to the Moorabbin's example

http://www.aarg.com.au/Wackett.htm


regards

Mark Pilkington

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

what serial is your wackett?

dronezz, any photos?

[quote="Mark_Pilkington"]Not likely to be well known as a type by many here, but I have a shed with a flock of CAC CA-6 Wackett Trainer parts waiting for me to get them into close formation and back into the air./quote]

Boy Mark,

I like the looks of that thing. Kind of resembles a Vultee BT-13 too. Tell me a little more about that wing. Is it totally wood, as in spars, ribs, and plywood covering just like the Cornells? One piece too 'eh? Wow, what's the wing span?

Now quit making her wait and get to work on her!

Good luck with it.

Steve

i cant read russian but it looks like you only have small parts.

are you rebuilding the G-2 aswell?

Interesting thread (especially having attracted a new WIXer from Moscow with a 109 project!)

I noted the fleeting ref earlier in the discussion to a stored American Eagle. Is the history of this one known as far back as the 40s perchance? Reason for asking is a possible connection with Walt Soplata. His first aircraft was an American Eagle in near-flying condition...which he decided to sell after it commenced taxiing, with no one aboard, while Walt was running the engine! In the early 70s this particular Eagle was said to be flying in California in the ownership of an airline pilot. Could this be the same one? I've long been curious as to the eventual fate of Walt's first airplane.

S.

steve
jack cook was sorta right in that i do have an american eagle project but it is not in "storage". more like long term rebuild.. my father is working on it and our eaglerock.. the american eagle , we just finished the third wing and are now assembling the last upper right wing then we'll start in on the final assembly of the fus. the fus tubular has been repaired (read that as 80% new) and is waiting the wings before we really get into putting the rest of the fus together. as for the soplata connection the answer is "no".. this acft has a history in the northwest and montana and last flew in the late 30's and basicly went derilick (sp) after the war... we bought what was left ( basicly the VERY rusted tubular fus was all) for about $150 in the mid 70's... cost more in gas to go get it and bring it home...

jack --- nothing is really in storage with us... one of us is always doing something to one of them...

jcw

ooops

maybe the f6f is in storage untill i get enough parts to start the project

jcw

I'm rebuilding a Harvard IV. I'll probably convert her to a T6G.(not much difference). It's going well, and am over 50% done with the project.

Chris

Blasphemy!

Converting a Harvard to a T-6!

We would never do that with our two Harvards!

_________________
Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Hi all,
A CAC Wirraway is the focus of my attention. She'll fly again one day/year/decade

Matt

In reply to questions above:



Steve the wing is a single piece 37' wingspan (although it does have removable wingtips) 7'6" cord at the root, it has two laminated box spars of spruce booms and ply webs(athough the rear spar is termed a false spar due to its design method of using an auxillary spar to the tip) the wing has ply ribs and covering, with doped fabric over the ply for protection. The wing was fitted with electric flaps and leading edge "letterbox" slots, and despite the gear retract control in the cockpit - it has fixed undercarriage.

I have never recovered any significant mainplane remains other than flaps ailerons internal metal fittings etc, I purchased over 4000 drawings from CAC with the intent to build a new wing but have since decided to fit a metal wing from a Yeoman Cropmaster - see below -as a shortcut into the air, I will leave a wooden wing to my retirement or a future generation.



homer, my airworthy restoration is based around the fuselage of A3-167/VH-AGP, the aircraft serviced with the RAAF in Elementary Flying Training and then later Wireless Air Gunnery schools until demobbed in 1946 and then civil flying until the later 1950's. It become grounded at Moorabbin airport and was used to "blow the dust out" of Hangars as a ground runner until a prop strike damaged its engine. It was acquired and donated to the Moorabbin Air Museum, and disassembled for storage where unfortunately ongoing external storage caused the wooden wing & tailplane etc to further decay.

With the collection being stored over a number of different private sites before securing its current site at the Moorabbin Airport and the donation of a second complete Wackett A3-22/VH-ALV, by the early 1980's the first aircraft had become little more than an internally stripped fuselage as a spares source for the other.

I acquired it through trade of a Yeoman Cropmaster VH-AGL, the Cropmaster was a radical conversion of a Wackett into a Cropduster, with metalisation of the fuselage cladding, and replacement of wooden flying surfaces with a new swept fin/rudder, metal tailplane and metal wing.

while the tail was a new design Yeoman "metalised" the wooden Wackett wing design to avoid delays in production and sales despite the view that a better "new wing" could be designed.

(a similar conversion of the Wirraway design into the Ceres Cropduster was undertaken by CAC itself - in both cases wartime surplus airframes were used as parts sources for the new designs.)

CAC provided me with over 4000 drawings prior to their closure in the late 1980's and I have also collected the various remains of A3-56, A3-85/VH-BLV, A3-138 and two Cropmasters VH-CYW and VH-SWC to support the project, but the fuselage frame and and other airworthy surviving parts of A3-167 will be the basis of the restoration.


thanks for your interest

Mark Pilkington

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

This post appeared in the Flypast forum under a similar themed thread, so apologies for those who have seen it all before, i was going to post some pics but didnt have any access to mine on this pc so thought I would experiment by grabbing the pic from the Flypast posting.

so if the pic doesnt post you will know I am still learning how to drive the Img* function on this site.

the pic and post is viewable on the flypast site at:

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showpo ... tcount=112





[/img]C:\Documents and Settings\mpilkingto\Cookies\My Pictures\img003.JPG

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

and that confirms I dont have a clue how to post pics using the Img function here - if someone can explain how you can post from a Harddrive stored image I will put up some more interesting pics than the flypast one, otherwise it will have to suffice via the link above.

regards

Mark Pilkington

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

the host doesnt allow upload here, you have to put the picture on an external server and link it, www.geocities.com have free hosting

Here you go.

_________________
It's you and me against the world.

We attack at dawn.