Ellis Wackett
Ellis Charles Wackett | |
---|---|
Warracknabeal , Victoria | |
Allegiance | Australia |
Service/ | |
Service years | 1914–59 |
Rank | Air Vice Marshal |
Commands held |
|
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards |
|
Relations | Lawrence Wackett (brother) |
Other work | Member, Australian National Airlines Commission (1960–68) |
Wackett became the RAAF's senior engineer with his appointment as Director of Technical Services in 1935. A
Early career
Born on 13 August 1901 in
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 Station 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" before 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, Victoria.[4]
By August 1927, Wackett had been promoted flight lieutenant and given command of the Papuan Survey Flight formed at RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria. Consisting of two Supermarine Seagull III single-engined amphibious biplanes and six aircrew, the flight was to examine and photograph the Papuan and New Guinean coasts as far north as Aitape and, if possible, Bougainville. 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 photos. Wackett's machine (serial A9-5) returned to Melbourne on 26 December and the other (A9–6) on 19 January 1928.[7] Inclement weather prevented the expedition from reaching Bougainville, and thick jungle cover limited the usefulness of its photographic record. Nevertheless, the Air Force learned valuable lessons concerning the Seagull's capabilities in a potential wartime role, as it was found to be unsuited to operations in the tropics.[8]
On 14 August 1928, Wackett married Doreen Dove in Melbourne; they had two sons and a daughter. In 1933, Wackett was posted to England to attend RAF Staff College, Andover.[2] Returning to Australia, he was promoted to squadron leader and became Director of Technical Services, an organisation within the RAAF's Supply Branch, in May 1935; the appointment made Wackett the Air Force's senior engineer.[1][9] The same year, he took charge of the Resources Committee for Electrical Equipment, Scientific and Optical Instruments, one of several 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 defence in the event of international conflict.[10]
World War II
Ranked
Wackett was appointed an
Raised to air commodore, Wackett was appointed the first Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance (AMEM) on 4 June 1942.[16] As AMEM, 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.[17] Along with the new position of Air Member for Supply and Equipment, filled by Air Commodore George Mackinolty, AMEM had been created to replace the positions of Director-General of Supply and Production, a civilian post, and Air Member for Organisation and Equipment.[18] 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".[19] During the war, the Air Board oversaw expansion from a complement in 1939 of 246 obsolescent machines such as CAC Wirraways, Avro Ansons and Lockheed Hudsons, to a strength in 1945 of 5,620 sophisticated aircraft including Supermarine Spitfires, P-51 Mustangs, de Havilland Mosquitoes and B-24 Liberators; to support this force, the RAAF had provided all-through training for 18,000 technical staff, and further education for 35,000 more schooled initially outside the service.[20]
Post-war career
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 eventually led to the CAC Winjeel basic trainer and Australian co-partnership in production of the CAC Sabre jet fighter and GAF Canberra jet bomber.[21][22] Wackett also supported Air Vice Marshal Joe Hewitt, the Air Member for Personnel, in fostering apprenticeships as part of what Stephens considered 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.[23]
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 being "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.[24]
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. He was disappointed by the limits imposed by the Air Board on career advancement for his personnel: the General Duties Branch in the late 1940s was permitted to maintain thirty-seven officer positions of group captain and above but the Technical Branch was allowed only fourteen such slots, though both departments had an almost identical overall strength of just under 400 staff. This anomaly led Wackett to submit a dissenting report on the subject to the Air Board, one of the few occasions a board member exercised his right to such a protest. His new organisation caused some other tensions in the RAAF: new airworthiness considerations frustrated pilots who found their flying time restricted by the introduction of more rigorous maintenance procedures; supply officers feared being "outshone" by the new status accorded to engineers; and so-called "black handers"—old-school technical officers who had risen through the ranks—regarded with disdain the prospect of an influx of "silly young blokes with degrees".[24]
Wackett had been promoted temporary
In 1953, Wackett established advanced diploma training for twenty-five airmen annually at
Later life and legacy
I have seen the aeroplane come from nothing to the dominant weapon of the last war. The piston engine took the aeroplane as far as possible subsonically. Now the missile challenges the aeroplane for supremacy.
Ellis Wackett, 1959[33]
When Wackett left the Air Force on 31 December 1959, he was its longest-serving officer.
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 was described in the official history of the post-war Air Force as among the "outstanding officers of the post-war era".
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Stephens and Isaacs, High Fliers, pp. 97–99
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
- ^ a b Personnel file: Wackett, Ellis Charles at National Archives of Australia. Retrieved on 28 August 2009.
- ^ a b c Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 337–338
- ^ a b Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 90–91
- ^ a b Wackett, Ellis Charles Archived 12 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine at World War 2 Nominal Roll. Retrieved on 4 August 2009.
- ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 412–413
- ^ Wilson, The Eagle and the Albatross, pp. 26–27
- ^ a b Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 70 Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 28
- ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 94 Archived 13 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Walker, Medical Services of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, p. 325
- ^ "No. 35029". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1941. p. 11.
- ^ Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 388
- ^ Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 405
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 500
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 112
- ^ Ashworth, How Not to Run an Air Force!, p. 129
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 81
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 152–154, 170–173
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 188
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 221–222
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 185–189
- ^ a b c d Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 171–173
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 172
- ^ "No. 39244". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 June 1951. p. 3096.
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 182
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 137
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 440
- ^ "No. 40961". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1957. p. 41.
- ^ "No. 41590". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1959. p. 39.
- ^ "Women Share in New Year Honors Announced Today". The Age. 1 January 1959. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- ^ a b Lawler, Don (29 December 1959). "For First Time R.A.A.F. Will Have No Wackett". The Age. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- ^ a b Coulthard-Clark, Air Marshals of the RAAF, p. 34
- ^ Gunn, Contested Skies, p. 246
- ^ Gunn, Contested Skies, pp. 199, 221
- ^ Alexander, Who's Who in Australia 1962, p. 869
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 196, 290
- ^ Odgers, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 188
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 178–179
- ^ Rayner, The Commanders, p. 314
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 296–297
References
- Alexander, Joseph A., ed. (1962). Who's Who in Australia 1962. Melbourne: Colorgravure.
- Ashworth, Norman (2000). How Not to Run an Air Force! Volume One – Narrative (PDF). Canberra: RAAF Air Power Studies Centre. ISBN 0-642-26550-X.
- Coulthard-Clark, Chris (1995). Air Marshals of the RAAF 1935–1995. Canberra: Department of Defence (Air Force Office).
- Coulthard-Clark, Chris (1991). The Third Brother. North Sydney: ISBN 0-04-442307-1.
- Gillison, Douglas (1962). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series Three (Air) Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
- Gunn, John (1999). Contested Skies: Trans-Australian Airlines, Australian Airlines, 1946–1992. St. Lucia, Queensland: ISBN 0-7022-3073-1.
- Mellor, D.P. (1958). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series 4 (Civil) Volume V – The Role of Science and Technology. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
- ISBN 0-86777-368-5.
- Rayner, Harry (1992) [1984]. ISBN 1-86373-190-3.
- Stephens, Alan (1995). Going Solo: The Royal Australian Air Force 1946–1971. Canberra: ISBN 0-644-42803-1.
- Stephens, Alan (2006) [2001]. The Royal Australian Air Force: A History. London: ISBN 0-19-555541-4.
- Stephens, Alan; Isaacs, Jeff (1996). High Fliers: Leaders of the Royal Australian Air Force. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 0-644-45682-5.
- Walker, Allan S. (1961). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series 5 (Medical) Volume IV – Medical Services of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
- Wilson, David (2003). The Eagle and the Albatross: Australian Aerial Maritime Operations 1921–1971 (Ph. D. thesis). Sydney: University of New South Wales.