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By: - 13th June 2015 at 13:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Yes
The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation(CAC) in Australia made Pratt and Whitney R-1340 radials and Merlins during WW2. I understand they had extensive tooling but does this mean they cast and manufactured the parts themselves or simply an assembly plant for imported engines?
Both I reckon, starting off by assembling and gradually manufacturing. Lidcombe NSW engine plant did most of it, though I understand railway workshops in Launceston Tas did Cheetah engine components when these could not be got from the UK once war broke out. Below a picture of CAC- HdH blokes casting P&W pots in the 70's...
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By: - 13th June 2015 at 23:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Excellent photo.
Is that really a photo from the 70's!!!
Wow technology has come a long way since the war.........not!
By: - 13th June 2015 at 23:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Looking at the sideburns and mustache - looks 70's LOL
By: - 14th June 2015 at 02:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Yes, Australia, once upon a time, had the capabilities to cast and manufacture complex aircraft components. The capabilities in Tasmania alone were astonishing. The Tasmanian Railway Workshop produced something like 15,000 Cheetah cylinder assemblies and the Launceston branch of what is now Repco produced hundreds of AS Genet Major cylinders. In fact the Repco workshop in Launceston was considered to be so good, that it was tasked with producing a large amount of precision tooling and measuring equipment for Australian manufacturer use.
Sadly, most of these capabilities have disappeared in Australia, to be off-shored to places like China.
By: - 14th June 2015 at 03:20 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thankyou Avro, that information is fantastic.
I had no idea local production was so intense. So not only did we manufacture P&W cylinders but A.Siddeley as well.
Surely there must be NOS Cheetah cylinders still in Tassie waiting to be found.
What else was made in Australia??
By: - 14th June 2015 at 05:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
One mustn't forget the the large numbers for Gipsy Majors produced by General Motors Holden for use in Tiger Moths or the reverse engineering of the 20mm Hispano cannons in very short order to be used in the CAC Boomerang.
By: - 14th June 2015 at 11:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
With reference to the Merlins coming out of the Lidcombe factory....how much of those motors was manufactured here??
By: - 15th June 2015 at 12:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
T, #6: you need D.Eyre, A/c in Oz, 978-0864790231 and UK Official History, WW2, Civil Series, H.Duncan Hall/CC Wrigley, Studies of Overseas Supply, Ch.IX, the Eastern Hemisphere. You will find many assertions of deep evil by Brits trying to corner Oz markets...just as you will find endless Brit assertions that we wuz robbed by US. Few or less are true. Always a reason. In WWs1/2: Shipping: it was better for the Allies to put fit, strong Diggers into uniform, than to tussle U-Boats/commerce raiders, to move raw materials in/finished product out of Oz. Better to build in Canada, sitting on bauxite. CAC entered repair parts largely because the spares supply chain, Original Equipment Manufacturers - Users, was so slow (ASM Genet Major parts were for A6-1/34 Cadet II, low on UK priority, below Cheetah and Merlin parts -ASM was a Merlin repairer).
Posts: 19
By: Tosser - 13th June 2015 at 12:04
The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation(CAC) in Australia made Pratt and Whitney R-1340 radials and Merlins during WW2. I understand they had extensive tooling but does this mean they cast and manufactured the parts themselves or simply an assembly plant for imported engines?