Lawrence Wackett - Wackett in The 1930s

Wackett in The 1930s

As a result of a government-sponsored report and pressure from British manufacturers, who saw Wackett as a threat to their monopoly on Australian orders, the Randwick Station was closed in 1931. Wackett resigned from the RAAF with the rank of Wing Commander and transferred (with some personnel and equipment) to the Cockatoo Island Naval Dockyard. Here he was involved in the design of watercraft as well as aircraft. He continued working for the RAAF - a single de Havilland D.H.60G Gipsy Moth was built at the Dockyard under his supervision and entered RAAF service in 1933. He also undertook civilian aviation projects including repair and modification projects, and built the Cockatoo Docks & Engineering LJW.6 Codock, a six passenger airliner powered by two Napier Javelin engines of 160 hp (120 kW), for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. A later design for a larger aircraft, the 4-engined Corella, did not leave the drawing board, nor did his other aircraft concepts; VH-URP, the solitary Codock, was the only Wackett aircraft design built at the Dockyard. His marine designs at the Dockyard included small motorboats such as the Cettien (which won the Griffith Cup in 1934 and 1935) and the racing hydroplane Century Tire II, and larger commercial passenger-carrying vessels as well.

In 1934, Wackett and some of his staff joined Tugan Aircraft at Mascot aerodrome. The following year, following a series of accidents involving Australian-operated de Havilland D.H.86s, he and his brother Ellis (who was then the Director of RAAF Technical Services) were asked to provide their views and recommendations to a special conference convened by the Civil Aviation Branch, held to examine the type and its shortcomings. In 1936 he was seconded to the RAAF to lead a technical mission to Europe (including future enemy nations Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) and the USA to evaluate modern aircraft types and select a type suitable to Australia's defence needs and within Australia's capabitities to build. The three-man mission lasted five months and on its return advised that the North American NA-16 was the most suitable type. On completion of the mission Wackett returned to Tugan Aircraft, where the Codock design was developed into the LJW7 Gannet six/seven passenger airliner powered by two de Havilland Gipsy Six engines. This was the first of Wackett's designs to enter series production. The first aircraft was delivered in late 1935 and a total of eight Gannets were built for cilvilian customers and the RAAF. The RAAF took delivery of one new Gannet and subsequently operated another five second-hand examples. One RAAF aircraft was temporarily modified with Menasco engines as the LJW7A during World War II.

Shortly after the establishment of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC), Tugan Aircraft was purchased to give CAC a nucleus of experienced personnel. Upon joining CAC Wackett immediately became the General Manager and he oversaw the entry into production of the first aircraft mass-produced in Australia, the CAC Wirraway development of the NA-16 he had earlier recommended. The second type to emerge from CAC under Wackett's stewardship was the eponymous Wackett Trainer, the first prototype flying for the first time just after the outbreak of World War II.