Wackett and The RAAF Experimental Section
Wackett learned of war surplus machine tools slated for disposal from a workshop in Randwick, Sydney, and prevailed upon his superiors to acquire the workshop. The RAAF Experimental Aircraft Section was thus established in January 1924 and Wackett, by then a Squadron Leader, was placed in charge. He tried to obtain permission to design and build an entirely Australian aircraft, but the RAAF had no money in its budget for this and would not give the go-ahead unless Wackett could obtain funds from some other source. Wackett then approached the Controller of Civil Aviation Colonel H. C. Brinsmead and managed to persuade the Civil Aviation Branch (of the Department of Defence, there not being a separate Department of Civil Aviation at this time) to fund the construction of a small flying boat.
The result was the Widgeon, a wooden hull biplane flying boat powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Puma of 230 hp (170 kW) located below and forward of the upper wing. This aircraft, the first flying boat to be wholly designed and constructed in Australia, was registered to the Civil Aviation Branch out of the Australian sequence (i.e. G-AUxx) as G-AEKB, after E. K. Bowden, Minister for Defence. The aircraft was launched on 7 July 1925 into Botany Bay. The following day it hit a sandbank during taxi tests and later overturned whilst attempting a takeoff. Wackett was on board with Brinsmead and two mechanics; all were unhurt. The aircraft was repaired and made its first flight on 3 December that year. Wackett subsequently installed a more-powerful 300 hp (220 kW) ADC Nimbus engine and an undercarriage, converting it into an amphibian. Following the modifications the Widgeon I was transferred to the RAAF and used at Point Cook for flying boat training from 1927. The aircraft operated with the RAAF until 1929, when it was scrapped. A larger amphibian, the Widgeon II, powered by a 440 hp (330 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engine, was the next aircraft to emerge from the Experimental Section workshop. Wackett himself flew the Widgeon II extensively, later saying, "I proved its capability by flying it on a 9,000-mile (14,000 km) journey across and around part of the Australian continent in 1928". The next aircraft developed at Randwick was the two-seat Warrigal I of 1929, a biplane trainer of conventional design, powered by a 180 hp (130 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Lynx radial engine. This was followed in 1930 by the improved Warrigal II, powered by a 450 hp (340 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar radial engine.
On 21 March 1927, Wackett was elected the inaugural Chairman of the NSW Division of the Institution of Aeronautical Engineers (IoAE) in Sydney. The following year, after the amalgamation of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) and the IoAE parent body in Britain, he was appointed the inaugural Deputy Chairman of the Australasian Branch of the RAeS. He also found time to act as the New South Wales RAAF Aide de Camp to the Governor General, although the duties were not onerous.
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