The Warrigal I and II were Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n aircraft designed by Squadron Leader Lawrence James Wackett

Lawrence Wackett

Sir Lawrence James Wackett KBE, DFC, AFC is widely regarded as "father of the Australian aircraft industry". He has been described as "one of the towering figures in the history of Australian aviation covering, as he did, virtually all aspects of activities: pilot, designer of airframes and...

 and built by the Experimental Section of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at Randwick, New South Wales

Randwick, New South Wales

Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...

, during the late 1920s. They were both single-engined, two-seat biplanes of mixed wood and metal construction. The Warrigal I was the first aircraft designed and built in Australia to an official RAAF specification.

Development

The Warrigal (an Aboriginal

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 word meaning "wild" or "untamed") I aircraft was designed to meet Air Board specification AC34 for an advanced training aircraft

Trainer (aircraft)

A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate in-flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristics and a simplified cockpit arrangement—allows...

 suitable to replace the ageing RAAF Avro 504K

Avro 504

The Avro 504 was a World War I biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the War totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in World War I, in any military capacity, during...

 fleet. The aircraft was not only required to carry out flight training

Flight training

Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills....

, but also training in aerial combat, bombing, wireless communication, aerial photography and observation. A mock-up was completed in February 1926 and construction was commenced shortly after. Wackett expected that construction would take around 6 months. However work on the Widgeon II

Wackett Widgeon

The Wackett Widgeon seaplanes were built by the Experimental Section of the Royal Australian Air Force at Randwick, NSW during the mid- to late-1920s. They were single-engined amphibious biplanes of wooden construction...

 and spare parts for RAAF No. 1 Air Depot delayed completion until mid-September 1928. A further two-month delay ensued when it was discovered that the centre of gravity was not as designed and several items of equipment needed to be relocated to obtain the correct balance.

Wackett made the first flight in the Warrigal I on 4 December 1928 at RAAF Richmond.

A series of extensive trials covering all the intended roles was carried out by No. 1 Flying Training School

No. 1 Flying Training School RAAF

No. 1 Flying Training School was a flying training school of the Royal Australian Air Force . It was one of the Air Force's original units, dating back to the service's formation in 1921, when it was based at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. The school underwent a number of reorganisations during its...

. These showed that performance was lower than the designer's predicted figures and, while it met many of the requirements in specification AC34, the Warrigal I had handling problems which made it unsuitable for use as a trainer. Wackett was dismissive of the final report on the trials, claiming that the results were qualitative only, lacking a "recognised or rational system of observation or measurement". He claimed that the improved Warrigal II design would resolve issues raised in the report.

The Warrigal II was designed to meet an RAAF specification for an Army co-operation aircraft to replace the aging fleet of DH.9 aircraft, and was equipped with a more powerful (and heavier) 450 hp Jaguar engine which resulted in a shorter nose to keep the centre of gravity in the correct range. Drawings for the Warrigal II were submitted to the Air Board in August 1929 with the explanation that all defects found in the first aircraft had been rectified and that construction was well underway. This led to questions by the Auditor-General since there was no written authority for the RAAF Experimental Section to commence construction of a second aircraft. However the situation was rectified with the correct authorisation coming from the Minister for Defence in January 1930 by which time the aircraft was almost complete. The closure of the RAAF Experimental Section at Randwick which had been recommended by the Salmond Report was delayed until 30 March 1930 so the aircraft could be completed. The Warrigal II was moved to RAAF Richmond in April 1930 for final assembly and rigging. The first flight was delayed by the requirement to re-check the design stress calculations following the crash of the Widgeon II seaplane which had also been designed by Wackett. The checks were carried out by the Director of Technical Services, Squadron Leader H.C. Harrison and were found to be satisfactory. The first flight of the Warrigal II was carried out by Flying Officer R.H. Simms on 7 July 1930. Shortly after this it suffered a hard landing at Mascot airport and required repairs to the undercarriage and wings.

Operational history

The two Warrigal aircraft had short service careers, which consisted mostly of testing and evaluation trials. The Warrigal I was delivered to RAAF base Point Cook on 29 January 1929 after a seven hour cross-country flight with stops at Golburn and Cootamundra. On 31 January the aircraft was christened by Mrs. Ettie Williams, the wife of the Chief of Air Staff Richard Williams and handed over to the Commonwealth Air Board for a series of performance, handling and operational tests. Numerous RAAF pilots were invited to test the handling of the aircraft, including Charles Eaton

Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)

Charles Eaton OBE, AFC was a senior officer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force , who later served as a diplomat. Born in London, he joined the British Army upon the outbreak of World War I and saw action on the Western Front before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917...

, who described an alarming incident when he was unable to recover from an intentional spin

Spin (flight)

In aviation, a spin is an aggravated stall resulting in autorotation about the spin axis wherein the aircraft follows a corkscrew downward path. Spins can be entered intentionally or unintentionally, from any flight attitude and from practically any airspeed—all that is required is sufficient yaw...

 until the last moment possible, almost resulting in the loss of the aircraft.

In September 1929 it suffered from a heavy landing which damaged the undercarriage. Due to the lack of spare parts and the cost of repairs, the Air Board recommended that the aircraft should be written off, the Minister for Defence giving approval for this course of action in November.

The Warrigal II was delivered to No. 1 FTS on 12 September 1930 and within a month it had to be partly dismantled to repair chafing of the wires supporting the wings. Meanwhile the the Warrigal I was stripped of its engine and fittings and the airframe

Airframe

The airframe of an aircraft is its mechanical structure. It is typically considered to include fuselage, wings and undercarriage and exclude the propulsion system...

 was disposed in a fire in November 1930. It had completed a total flying time of 40 hours and 5 minutes. Flight testing of the Warrigal II commenced in September 1931 and were completed in February 1932 when an inspection revealed that the joint between the front and rear sections of the fuselage

Fuselage

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...

 had weakened and opened up. Repairs took 6 months but then further problems appeared with the undercarriage

Undercarriage

The undercarriage or landing gear in aviation, is the structure that supports an aircraft on the ground and allows it to taxi, takeoff and land...

 in September 1932 so it was decided to mount the aircraft on floats for trials as a seaplane

Seaplane

A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...

. The results of these trials were positive and it was found that the Warrigal II was capable of handling rougher seas than the smaller Moth seaplanes. By March 1933 after a total flying time of 37 hours and 15 minutes the Warrigal II was unserviceable again and Wing Commander H.F. De La Rue (C.O. of No.1 FTS) recommended its disposal. This was approved by the Minster for Defence in July, and following the removal of the engine and instruments the Warrigal II was donated to Melbourne Technical College for use in the teaching of aircraft design.

Variants

• Warrigal I – original 200 hp version designed as an advanced training aircraft with capacity for pilot and instructor (one produced)
• Warrigal II – improved 450 hp version designed as an army co-operation aircraft with capacity for pilot and observer/rear gunner (one produced)

Specifications (Warrigal I)

External links

• http://cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/P00484.008Photo of Warrigal I from the collection of the Australian War Memorial
  Australian War Memorial
  The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...
  
  ]
• Photo of the Warrigal I being christened by Mrs. Ettie Williams at Point Cook on 31 Janurary 1929.
• Photo of Warrigal II following a hard landing at Mascot aiport on 29 July 1930, from the Hood Collection at the NSW State Library. The caption incorrectly identifies the aircraft as a Percival Warragull.