Aussie fighter CAC CA-15 development

Aircraft Serial A62-1001
Construction Number 1074

The Prototype aircraft was completed 02/46 it was supposed to be an aircraft to replace the P-51. Taxying trials began 12/02/46. First flown 04/03/46, Pilot was Jim Schofields who took her up at 18.10hrs from Fisherman's Bend for the fifteen minute inaugural flight. A further 23 flights made mostly by Scholfields, but also a few flights made by some APU pilots: WgCmdr J.E.Harper, Sqd Ldrs D.R. Cuming and G.C. Brunner. Total flight time when handed to RAAF 16 hrs and 35 mins.

Delivered to RAAF 02/07/46. To 1APU 02/07/46. More pilots flew her from Point Cook: WgCmdr G.D. Marshall, Sdr Ldrs G.H. Shiells and C.W. Stark and finally Flt Lieut J.A.Lee Archer. These flights came to an abrupt ending when Archer suffered a hydraulic failure ( later found to be a leaking ground test gauge) on approach to Point Cook on 10/1246, which left him no choice but to orbit and burn off fuel. The main gear was only halfway down and unretractable and could not be lowered any further. The tail wheel was down and locked though. On landing this struck the strip first causing the aircraft to porpoise and finally the airscoop dug in. The aircraft settled back on the fuselage and skidded to a stop, heavily damaged. Total flight time at this point 43 hrs and 25 mins.

To CAC Fishermans Bend 02/06/47 for repairs.

To ARDU 19/05/48 after repairs. The aircraft acheived a speed of 502.2 mph after a 4000ft dive on 25/05/48 flown by Flt Lt Archer. The highest calibrated level flight was 448mph (721Km/h) at 26400ft.

The project was cancelled 01/05/50 and the aircraft was transfered to 1AD at Laverton and converted to componants. The engines returned to Rolls Royce as they were 'leased'.



The Author of this page is Darren Crick.Source: Australias Military Aircraft, RAAF Museum Website, RAAF Status Cards."The ADF-Serials team give permission to use the content of this page, excluding images, providing that it contains an acknowledgement to the adf-serials team and any other listed sources."

http://www.adf-serials.com/2a62.shtml

[Mark_Pilkington]

.
You never know whats still lurking away in a shed somewhere!


I had a phone call to come and look and some aircraft stored away in a shed near Melbourne and found this lurking in the shadows

The owner had recently passed away, it hadnt flown for many years and the engine had been removed, but it was all there!

I couldnt believe how large it was.








smiles

Mark Pilkington

[Skyraider3D]

They are indeed to scale, James. It would appear the CA-15 looks so big because of the tiny cockpit and general bulky forms. In reality the differences aren't that great at all:

Wing span:
P-51D: 37 ft
CA-15: 36 ft (smaller!)

length:
P-51D: 32.25 ft
CA-15: 36.5 ft

(also see: http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=78790)



Nice try Mark, hehe

[Downunder]

Model plans can be obtained here http://www.airbornemagazine.com.au/artCA15.htm
The model in the pics looks the same as Mark's.

[retroaviation]

.
You never know whats still lurking away in a shed somewhere!


I had a phone call to come and look and some aircraft stored away in a shed near Melbourne and found this lurking in the shadows

The owner had recently passed away, it hadnt flown for many years and the engine had been removed, but it was all there!

I couldnt believe how large it was.

smiles

Mark Pilkington

Is it going to a museum, Mark, or is it just going to sit in the shed?

[Rossco]

Anyone got any internal pics of her in the cockpit and down the inside of the fuselage?Also of the engine mounts etc?

[Mark_Pilkington]

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[quote]Is it going to a museum, Mark, or is it just going to sit in the shed?[/quote]





smiles, I bought it on the spot, and had my team commence dis-assembly for transport.














It now hangs in the ceiling of the Australian National Aviation Museum on public display.

It is the model in the article linked in "Downunder"s post, build by the article author and modeller Adrian Hopgood from Geelong who passed away in 2005, it is a 1/6th flying model (6' long with 6' wingspan, the original aircraft had a 36' wingspan)

It is a balsa model with aluminium litho plate "skin" glued to all surfaces with rivet and zeus fasteners detailed, it was designed built as a flying model and had retractable undercarriage and flew with a two blade prop.

Adrian later removed the servos, motor and rebuilt the undercarriage as "fixed" with more scale detail and fitted a 4 blade prop to complete the scale model presentation.

Adrian's model plans are still available


The model did fly, and suffered one major crash during its flying career, duplicating the orginal's history.










Unfortunately the original was scrapped after being cancelled (although rumours of its survival circulate like most wishful thinking), there are claims scrapped parts surfaced in Gippsland a number of years ago but I have never seen any photos or evidence of those claims.

There are minor components surviving from pre-production sub-contractors or prototype spares etc including the canopy mentioned in an earlier post.

Hopefully someone will build a static FSM for display one day to allow it to be seen in full size, but unfortunately all of the drawings were apparantly lost in the 1980's when a request for access was made for a possible Reno Racer to be built, and the story goes that the cleaners found the boxes of paper drawings awaiting pickup and thought they were rubbish.

The story sounds like an urban myth but it was told to me by Australia's foremost historian on Australian manufacturing and indeed a former employee of CAC so it seems to shut the door on a flying replica ever being made.


regards

Mark Pilkington

[retroaviation]

Gary the embarrassed.

[Jollygreenslugg]

..with rivet and zeus fasteners detailed...

Isn't it 'Dzus' rather than 'zeus'? That's what Ash told us back there at Moorabbin back in the eighties...

Cheers,
Matt

[Mark_Pilkington]

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Sorry Gary, but it is an impressive and large model smiles.

and yes you are right Matt, Dzus fasteners it is, not "zeus".

Rossco, there are photos of the original with its cowls off during manufacture showing the engine mount arrangements, and some rare photos of the cockpit but primarily of instrument panel layout etc.

Those are best found in Stewart Wilson's book "Wirraway, Boomerang and CA-15"



http://www.hawkeyemodels.com.au/Books.htm

Regards

Mark Pilkington

[daveymac82c]

That's a great line of books.

I've got the whole set.

-David

[Rossco]

Cheers Mark,will see if they have it out at the museum at Oakey if I have time on Sunday.Putting shelves up for our Spit bits stash..
Cheers Rossco.

[bootlegger]

Sorry to go off topic. Not many people know this but Wacket also designed 2 unlimited race boats. They were both stepped Hydros. The first named Firebolt was built in 1929. It ran a rear mounted 6 cylinder Maybach Zeppellin engine and had a puller propellor just in front of the step. It was about as radical as you could get even by todays standards. It did around 60mph but rolled racing at Rose Bay.
The Second boat was Liberty powered. Named Cettien It was a little more conventional having a traditional stepped design with a normal prop but the topsides were shaped like a cigar. This boat went on to win Two Griffith cups in the early 30's. After the war it was converted to Merlin power and renamed Sunray II. With a top speed of around 100mph it too rolled over. A lot of plans for Wackets Work including some of the aircraft are in the Garden Island dockyard archive. Dont ask me how they got there. You never know what you may find.
Its a tragedy the aircraft was ever scrapped.

[JDK]

They are indeed to scale, James. It would appear the CA-15 looks so big because of the tiny cockpit and general bulky forms. In reality the differences aren't that great at all:

Well, I am surprised. You live 'n learn. Thanks, Ronnie.

And yes, I love the 'flying' render.

[flyingheritage]

As i heard LAST year there is a CAC-15 made 1-1 scale up in QLD.. i saw photos of it been built .. havent heard since of update.