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Ellis Wackett

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Ellis Charles Wackett
Half-length portrait of grinning man in military uniform, with aviator's wings on left breast pocket and pipe in right hand
Air Vice Marshal Ellis Wackett, c. 1958
Nickname(s)"Wack", "EC", "Punch"
Allegiance Australia
Service / branch Royal Australian Navy
 Royal Australian Air Force
Years of service1914–1959
RankAir Vice Marshal
CommandsPapuan Survey Flight (1927–28)
DTS (1935–42)
Technical Branch (1948–59)
Battles / warsWorld War II
AwardsCompanion of the Order of the Bath
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
RelationsLawrence Wackett (brother)
Other workMember, Australian National Airlines Commission (1960–68)

Air Vice Marshal Ellis Charles Wackett CB, CBE (13 April 1901 – 3 August 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Its chief engineer from 1935 to 1959, he served on the RAAF's controlling body, the Air Board, for a record seventeen years, and has been credited with infusing operations with new standards of airworthiness. Commencing his service career as a Royal Australian Navy cadet during World War I, Wackett transferred to the Air Force in 1923 while on an engineering course in Britain. He qualified as a pilot before completing his studies and returning to Australia, where he inaugurated parachute instruction within the RAAF and made the country's first freefall descent from a military aircraft in 1926. The following year, he led a three-month survey flight to Papua New Guinea.

Wackett became the RAAF's senior engineer with his appointment as Director of Technical Services in 1935. A Wing Commander at the outbreak of World War II, he had risen to Air Commodore by 1942 and assumed the role of Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance. He established the Technical Branch as a separate department of the RAAF in 1948, and was promoted to Air Vice Marshal the same year. Wackett served as Air Member for Technical Services until leaving the military in 1959, having been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of the Bath. From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of the Australian National Airlines Commission, parent of Trans Australia Airlines. Generally known as "Wack", or "EC" (to distinguish him from his elder brother, aircraft designer Lawrence James Wackett or "LJ"), his prominent chin and nose also earned him the nickname "Punch".[1] He died in 1984 at the age of eighty-three.

Early career

Born in Townsville, Queensland, Ellis Wackett was the younger brother of future aircraft designer Lawrence Wackett. Ellis entered the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay, New South Wales in 1914, at the age of thirteen.[1] Graduating in 1918, he was commissioned in 1921 and posted to England for study.[2][3] Wackett was a Sub-Lieutenant at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham when he applied to join the RAAF in 1922.[4] Accepted by the Air Force the following year, he finished at Keyham in August and trained as a pilot on Salisbury Plain.[4][5] He then undertook a one-year post-graduate course in aeronautics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, before returning to Australia to take up his service as a Flying Officer with the RAAF.[2][4]

Wackett's first role was to establish parachute instruction within the Air Force. His trip home from England had been postponed at the last minute to enable him to be trained; he began instructing volunteers in 1926 at RAAF Richmond, New South Wales, and made Australia's first freefall descent from a military aircraft—an Airco DH.9—on 26 May. The Chief of the Air Staff, Group Captain Richard Williams, himself made a successful jump on 5 August, to set "a good example" prior to making the wearing of parachutes compulsory for all aircrew. On 21 August, Wackett piloted the DH.9 from which Flying Officer Frederick Scherger made the first public display of parachuting in Australia, at Essendon in Victoria.[2]

Single-engined military biplane on floats landing in ocean and trailing heavy wake, three-quarters overhead
Supermarine Seagull III, serial A9-5, the aircraft Wackett flew on his Papuan Survey Flight in 1927

By August 1927, Wackett had been promoted Flight Lieutenant and given command of the Papuan Survey Flight formed at RAAF Laverton, Victoria. Consisting of two Supermarine Seagull III amphibious biplanes and six aircrew, the flight was to examine and photograph the Papuan and New Guinea coasts as far north as Aitape. Stripped of all equipment considered non-essential—including radio sets—to increase range, the aircraft departed on 27 September and journeyed some 17,700 kilometres (11,000 mi), covering almost 130,000 square kilometres (50,000 sq mi) of country and taking 350 photographs. Wackett's machine (serial A9-5) returned to Melbourne on 26 December and the other (A9-6) on 19 January 1928.[6] On 14 August, he married Doreen Dove; the couple would have two sons and a daughter.[3]

Wackett was posted to England in 1933 to attend RAF Staff College, Andover.[3] Returning to Australia, he was promoted Squadron Leader and became Director of Technical Services (DTS), an organisation within the RAAF's Supply Branch, in May 1935; the appointment made him the Air Force's senior engineer.[1][7] The same year, he took charge of the Resources Committee for Electrical Equipment, Scientific and Optical Instruments, one of a number of subcommittees on the federal government's Defence Resources Board set up to investigate and report on the readiness of Australian industry to provide munitions for the country's defence in the event of international conflict.[8]

World War II

A dozen men behind a large table, half of whom are in military uniform and half in civilian clothes, seven standing and five seated
Group Captain Wackett, Director of Technical Services (standing, far left), with members of the RAAF Flying Personnel Medical Research Committee, including Group Captain George Jones, Director of Training (seated, second left), and Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, Chief of the Air Staff (seated, far right), c. 1941

Ranked Wing Commander at the outbreak of World War II, Wackett immediately faced major supply challenges as Director of Technical Services due to the now-limited availability of spare parts for the RAAF's mainly British-built equipment, coupled with the infancy of the local aircraft industry and a still-extant US arms embargo.[7] His Directorate made whatever use it could of civilian repair facilities, and set up central recovery depots to salvage spares from damaged aircraft and other equipment.[9] He also drew on the advice and support of his brother Lawrence, who had established the RAAF's technical services organisation in the 1920s and now, having retired from the Air Force, headed the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC).[1] By late 1940, Wackett had been promoted temporary Group Captain, and joined the Flying Personnel Research Committee. Its members, drawn from the flying, medical, scientific and technical disciplines, were to study and report upon such factors as aircrew safety, comfort, fatigue, survival, motion sickness, decompression and hypoxia.[10] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 New Years Honours.[11]

In June 1941, Wackett became the RAAF's representative on the federal Aircraft Advisory Committee, set up to assist the Director-General of Aircraft Production. As well as members from governmental and scientific bodies, the committee included delegates from aircraft manufacturers such as de Havilland Australia and CAC, with Lawrence Wackett acting as Chief Technical Advisor.[12] Later that year, the two brothers joined various academics on the newly formed Australian Council for Aeronautics, established by Prime Minister John Curtin to advise government, educational and scientific bodies on technical developments in the aircraft industry.[13] Raised to Air Commodore, Wackett was appointed Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance (AME) on 4 June 1942.[14] As AME, he sat on the Air Board, the RAAF's controlling body, which consisted of its most senior officers and was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff.[15] His new position had been created to replace that of the Director-General of Supply and Production, a civilian post.[16] Wackett would serve on the Air Board for the next seventeen years, a record tenure for the RAAF, his experience and intellect making him, in the words of Air Force historian Alan Stephens, "singularly adept at bringing a committee around to his point of view".[17]

Post-war career

Three-quarter shot of two men at airport shaking hands, one in civilian clothes with dark overcoat and light-coloured hat, the other in military uniform with peaked cap and pilot's wings on battle jacket. An aircraft's tail plane is above and behind the two men.
Air Vice Marshal Wackett (left) greeted by Group Captain D.R. Chapman, Officer Commanding No. 91 (Composite) Wing RAAF, at Iwakuni, Japan in April 1953

Following the end of the war, Wackett contributed to "Plan D", the blueprint for restructuring the RAAF sponsored by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones. A major facet of Plan D, adopted in June 1947, was its encouragement of local industry to design and build military trainers and produce more sophisticated combat aircraft under licence from overseas manufacturers. This policy would eventually lead to the Winjeel basic trainer and Australian co-partnership in production of the CAC Sabre jet fighter and GAF Canberra jet bomber.[18][19] Wackett also supported Air Vice Marshal Joe Hewitt, the Air Member for Personnel, in fostering apprenticeships as part of the "education revolution" that took place in the RAAF during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Apprentice Training Scheme, designed to raise the standard of technical roles in the Air Force, opened early in 1948 at the Ground Training School in RAAF Station Wagga, New South Wales to provide education and technical training for youths aged fifteen to seventeen. By 1952, it had been renamed the RAAF School of Technical Training (RSTT).[20]

Wackett played a key role in establishing technical services as a distinct department within the RAAF, rather than forming part of the Supply Branch as in previous years. Mindful of the increasing responsibility that was being placed on scientific and technical resources in the modern Air Force, he had raised the question of a specialist engineering branch immediately after the war, and in March 1946 gained broad approval for its establishment. After eighteen months of work defining its scope and responsibilities, the Technical Branch was formed under Wackett's leadership on 23 September 1948, his goals for the organisation being to "to support the operational power of the RAAF by providing the most efficient technical organisation possible" and "to increase the effectiveness of air power through technical development". This in turn led to a separate "list" of engineering personnel, as opposed to the earlier Technical List subgroup under the General Duties Branch. For flexibility, and to ensure that the flying and engineering branches had a better appreciation of their respective operations, Wackett supported the practice of some general duties officers continuing to perform engineering work, and as many technical officers as possible receiving secondary training as aircrew. Nevertheless the status of his new organisation caused some ongoing tensions in the RAAF, with his commitment to airworthiness considerations frustrating pilots who found their flying time restricted by the introduction of more rigorous maintenance procedures, while other personnel were concerned about the potential influx of university-qualified officers. Wackett had been promoted temporary Air Vice Marshal on 1 January 1947; this rank was made substantive following the formation of the Technical Branch.[21] On 31 October 1949, his title was changed from Air Member for Equipment and Maintenance to Air Member for Technical Services (AMTS),[14] in which capacity he would serve until his retirement from the RAAF in 1959.[3]

Two men in military uniforms with peaked caps on opposite sides of a military aircraft cockpit with open canopy
Wackett (right) in Korea during a visit to No. 77 Squadron RAAF, here inspecting a USAF F-86 Sabre at Kimpo in April 1953

Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1951 King's Birthday Honours,[22] Wackett again worked closely with Air Vice Marshal Hewitt, now the Air Member for Supply and Equipment, to introduce the concept of acquiring spare parts based on "life-of-type", whereby the forecast number and type of spares necessary for an aircraft's projected service life would be ordered when it was first deployed, to reduce costs and delivery time.[23] In 1953, Wackett estblished advanced diploma training for twenty-five airmen annually at Melbourne Technical College, the graduates receiving commissions as Pilot Officers.[24] He also began recruiting university-qualified engineers to the Technical Branch, and put in place formal relationships with such bodies as CSIRO, the Council of Aeronautics (of which he was a member), Aeronautical Research Laboratories, and local aircraft manufacturers de Havilland Australia, Government Aircraft Factories, and CAC. He further initiated RAAF sponsorship of a chair of aeronautics at the University of Sydney.[25] Wackett was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1957 New Years Honours.[26]

Later career and legacy

Wackett was discharged from the Air Force on 31 December 1959.[5] The following year he became a member of the Australian National Airlines Commission (ANAC), the controlling body of the federal government's domestic carrier, Trans Australia Airlines (TAA). He rose to the Vice Chairmanship of ANAC before retiring in 1968.[27][28] Wackett's period on the Commission had seen the arrival of the Jet Age to domestic air routes, with TAA taking delivery of its first Boeing 727 in 1964, and its first Douglas DC-9 in 1967.[29] He had also been elected a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.[30] Like his brother Lawrence, who wrote two books on the subject, Ellis Wackett's chief hobby was angling. He died in Warracknabeal, Victoria on 3 August 1984; his wife had predeceased him in 1975.[3][27]

For his commitment to the concept of airworthiness, as an attitude to quality and professionalism that went beyond simply whether aircraft were fit to fly or not, Wackett has been described as one of the "outstanding officers of the post-war era".[21] His seventeen-year tenure on the Air Board, which was dissolved in 1976, remained the longest of any officer in the RAAF.[1][31] This paved the way for a series of leaders of the Technical Branch (renamed Engineering Branch in 1966) who shared his vision, including Air Vice Marshals Ernie Hay (1960–1972) and James Rowland (1972–75).[32] Wackett was supposedly among those considered as possible successors to Air Marshal George Jones as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) when the latter was retired in 1952, however Prime Minister Robert Menzies' federal government chose an RAF officer for the role, Air Marshal Sir Donald Hardman.[1] In any case, Air Force regulations at that time stipulated that appointees had to belong to the RAAF's General Duties (Aircrew) Branch. In 1975, Air Marshal Rowland was appointed CAS, though he had to transfer from Engineering to General Duties beforehand. The following year, the requirement for CAS to be a member of the General Duties Branch was removed.[33]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Stephens & Isaacs, High Fliers, pp. 97–99
  2. ^ a b c Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 337–338
  3. ^ a b c d e Legge, Who's Who in Australia 1977, p. 1058
  4. ^ a b c Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 90–91
  5. ^ a b Wackett, Ellis Charles at World War W2 Nominal Roll. Retrieved on 4 August 2009.
  6. ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 412–413
  7. ^ a b Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942, p. 70
  8. ^ Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 28
  9. ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942, p. 94
  10. ^ Walker, Medical Services of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, p.325
  11. ^ "No. 35029". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 1 January 1941.
  12. ^ Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 388
  13. ^ Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 405
  14. ^ a b Stephens, Going Solo, p. 450
  15. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 112
  16. ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942, p. 479
  17. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 81
  18. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 188
  19. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 221–222
  20. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 185–189
  21. ^ a b Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 171–173
  22. ^ "No. 39244". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 7 June 1951.
  23. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 182
  24. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 137
  25. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 440
  26. ^ "No. 40961". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 1 January 1957.
  27. ^ a b Coulthard-Clark, Air Marshals of the RAAF, p. 34
  28. ^ Gunn, Contested Skies, p. 246
  29. ^ Gunn, Contested Skies, pp. 221, 241
  30. ^ Alexander, Who's Who in Australia 1962, p. 869
  31. ^ Odgers, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 188
  32. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 178–179
  33. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 296–297

References


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