HISTORY
Conceived, designed and built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Fishermen’s Bend on the fringe of Melbourne city in the early 1940’s, the Boomerang remains one of Australia’s most historically significant aviation achievements.
Boomerang production line, CAC factory. |
CAC was a private enterprise company created in the mid-1930’s by a consortium of some of Australia’s largest and most successful companies and industrialists of the day. The Wirraway two-seat advanced trainer was the company’s first major venture into aircraft production . This was a licenced-built version of a North American Aviation Company design called the NA-162K, which itself later evolved overseas into the T-6 or Harvard trainer. Much controversy was created at the time of the selection of this American design, as most equipment for the Australian armed forces up to that point was expected to be sourced from Great Britain. Ultimately a total of 755 Wirraways were constructed by CAC.
A Boomerang under construction, CAC factory. |
With the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and rapid advance south by Japanese forces in December 1941, Australia found itself with no effective fighter aircraft protection and with little likelihood of receiving modern types from the USA or Britain, as both of these countries already had their hands full meeting their own internal demands. As a result, the fledgling but innovative design team at CAC developed their own home-grown fighter aircraft which came to be known initially as the Wirraway Interceptor, and later the Boomerang. Although based on similar construction philosophies to the Wirraway, the Boomerang was essentially a brand new design and incorporated several advanced features, including laminar flow design in the outer wing sections.
Greg Board (CAC test pilot) in A46-163 on a test flight, 1944. |
Such was the speed of its development that no actual prototype was produced. The first five production aircraft were already under construction before the first aircraft flew. From official approval by the Government to proceed with the Boomerang production to the time of the first official flight was a matter of a little over sixteen weeks, a remarkable achievement by world standards. The Boomerang still remains to this day the only fully Australian designed and built fighter aircraft to see production. Following the flight of the first Boomerang on 29th May 1942, a further 249 Boomerangs were constructed under four separate contracts between 1942 and 1945. Model designations were CA-12, CA-13, CA-19 and one CA-14 experimental turbocharged version. This same aircraft A46-1001 was later subjected to further major design changes and redesignated the CA-14A.
Stephen Biggs boarding A46-163 whilst in service with 5 Sqn RAAF at Torokina, Bouganville Is, N.G. |
The Boomerang was fitted with two locally made Hispano 20mm cannons as well as four Browning .303 machine guns, all mounted in the outer wing panels. Bulged fairings were incorporated into the lower surfaces of the wings to accommodate the large cannon magazines which each held 60 rounds of 20mm ammunition. The whistling noise that can be heard in the audio clip on this website is created by the airflow over the open machine gun ports in the leading edges of the wings. In service these ports were usually covered with doped fabric patches to keep dust and dirt out of the machine guns. The gun bays in the wings made provision for 1000 rounds of ammunition per machine gun.
The Boomerang packed a punch as far as ground operations were concerned. They were used extensively by Nos.4 and 5 Squadrons in the New Guinea theatre, with the pilots conducting low level sorties in support of army operations by locating enemy positions, providing air to ground gunnery, directing artillery fire, conducting air to ground photography of enemy areas, dropping messages to ground troops etc. Other roles saw the Boomerangs used as lead-in aircraft whereby they would mark targets with smoke bombs, which were then followed up by Kittyhawk or RNZAF Corsair fighter bombers. No.84 Squadron also used Boomerangs from their base at Horn Island, conducting long range missions to Marauke in New Guinea to provide air cover to this area. Some of these missions took over three hours and flying at altitudes above 20,000 feet.
Tocumwal 1948. |
At war’s end the Boomerangs, like so many other world war two aircraft,
were discarded in the most expedient way possible.
The surviving machines of No. 5 Squadron were bulldozed and burnt at
Torokina on Bougainville Island whilst those of No.4 Squadron met a similar fate in Borneo.
No.83 Squadrons Boomerang’s were ferried to aircraft depots at Oakey and Tocumwal
on the Australian mainland where they were ultimately disposed of the scrap metal
merchants, with very little thought given to preservation for future generations.
Only one Boomerang by chance survived the post war period intact,
this being A46-30 which was gifted to the Australian Air League at Blacktown,
west of Sydney.
Oakey 1948. |
Suffering the effects of neglect and vandalism over many years,
this aircraft was ‘saved’ and removed to RAAF Base Williamtown where it
received some cosmetic restoration,
before being placed on open display near the main gate.
As this base is located near the ocean, severe corrosion of the Boomerang’s aluminium components occurred.
During the late 1970’s A46-30 was returned to the CAC factory for some more cosmetic restoration. After time on display at various venues including the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, this airframe is now held with the RAAF Museum collection at Point Cook, Victoria.
OTHER WEBSITES
There are several other websites containing historical information on Boomerangs.
Links to some of these are listed below:
Copyright © M.Denning 2003 - All rights reserved
|
