CAC Wirraway

By  Warwick Carter,

' Wozza' to his mates, also known as:   'Au_MaV'

This is an updated version with a number of improvements over the original model that first appeared on the CFS Aircraft pages of Simviation.

The Wirraway (an Australian aboriginal word meaning 'Challenger') was the main type of advanced trainer for the  Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War Two. It was the brain child of the pioneer Australian aviation designer and industrialist, Wing Commander Lawrence J. Wackett.

Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation was set up during 1935, encouraged and sponsored by the Australian Government under Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.

A number of large Australian companies  were involved in the formation of this first major Australian venture into aircraft production. These were BHP, Broken Hill Associated Smelter Pty. Ltd., and General Motors - Holden Ltd. (GM-H). These three companies formed the CAC syndicate that began to manufacture aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force in 1936.

Wackett became managing director of the new company which had its head office at Fishermen's Bend near the mouth the Yarra river, Port Melbourne. Wackett and his team toured the world looking at the state of aircraft production in a number of countries, including Great Britain, Germany and the United States. He realized that the Australian air force was going to need a high quality advanced training type.  He controversially selected an American design, the NA-16 as the basis for an advanced trainer to be built by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. Wackett copped at lot of criticism at the time. British engineering designs were generally thought to be the best by Australians, who tended  to be very anglophile in those days. Wackett's foresight was proved correct. Later on, the British themselves went in for the same basic design, known by the RAF as the North American NA-33 'Harvard'.

Unlike the British NA-33 'Harvard' or the American T-6 'Texan', the Australian version of this aircraft, the CAC 'Wirraway' carried armament and was used in combat during its wartime career. Two Vickers Mk.V .303 inch  machine guns were mounted in front of the cockpit, operated by the pilot and a single Vickers Mk.I .303 inch machine gun in the rear cockpit, operated by the observer. There was provision for it to carry bombs as well. The Wirraway also looked a little different physically, to its USAAC Texan and RAF Harvard counterparts, in that, it had rounded wing tips and rudder.

The Wirraway was initially used as the main single-engined trainer for the RAAF. Some were sent to Malaya before the war with Japan broke out, to provide support to the two RAAF Lockheed Hudson squadrons based there. In the crises caused by the Japanese attacks in the Pacific and South East Asia in December 1941, the CAC Wirraway became a front line aircraft! It was pressed into service as a fighter in Rabaul, simply because it was the most modern single engined aircraft available to the RAAF at the time. Most of these No. 24 Squadron machines at Rabaul were massacred by Zeros.

Later on, the CAC Wirraway had great success in its role as an Army Cooperation aircraft in New Guinea and New Britain. The one in the photograph below, A20-103 was credited with the destruction of a A6M2 Zero, near Buna on Boxing Day 1942.

Archer's Wirraway A20-103,  was credited with shooting down a Zero. It appears here, in the Australian War Memorial Museum, Canberra. Behind it is a Spitfire Mk.IIa that was occasionally flown by Keith (Bluey) Truscott in 453 Squadron RAAF, Tangmere 1941, and the Avro Lancaster, 'G for George' 460 Squadron RAAF. ( Photo circa 1970) I bought this postcard at the Museum shop when I was ten years old!

Felix Noble wrote an interesting article about  No. 4 Squadron Wirraway aircrews helping to support the Australian and US troops who were fighting alongside each other in the Buna-Sanananda Campaign in New Guinea during late 1942. It gives a bit of an idea of what army cooperation missions were like in Wirraways. Click onto the link below to read it:

http://www.dropbears.com/av/KFXart/articles/Cole.htm

This is Warwick Carter's (Au_Mav) updated model of the CAC Wirraway. It has many improvements on the original version that first appeared at Simviation. 'Wozza' has told me he is still going to keep refining it. So keep checking back here. There are many alternative skins for this plane, by Peter Haley. Check the skins page 2 for these.

I had to split this download into two separate zip files. The first, called CAC_Wirraway has most of the model. The second called 'Wirraway Skin' contains just the texture files. After you have unzipped the contents of this archive into a temporary folder, place this texture folder into your CAC_Wirraway folder then place the whole lot into the Aircraft folder of CFS2 and "Bob's your uncle."

To download the latest version of Au_Mav's Wirraway, click the image of it below: 

To get the texture files, in a zip called 'WirrawaySkin' click the image below:

To get the pilot and observer/air gunner to show up in the cockpit of this model Wirraway you will need to have Martin Wright's/Crying Toto's 'Spit Weapons Pack' with the 'RAF_pilot' and get the 'RAF_gunner', then install them in your CFS2. (Press Here) for the link to Martin's site to download it, if you don't already have it. Go to the CFS2/FS2000 page on the left side, then click onto the 'Extras' page.