On the 1st of March 1914 a solitary Bristol Box Kite took of from Point Cook airfield making history as the first ever flight from this important establishment, exactly ninety years later the Royal Australian Air Force Museum marked this historic event with the Point Cook Air Pageant.
Located on Port Philip Bay some 30 kilometers south west of Melbourne, Point Cook is the ancestral home of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and as such represents the world’s oldest continuously operating military airfield belonging to the world’s second oldest air force. With over 20,000 spectators in attendance the RAAF Museum presented an outstanding display of military aircraft from a bygone era.

With Australia facing almost certain invasion from Japan and the RAAF possessing no real front line fighter capability, an urgent requirement was issued for a “stop gap” fighter to be designed and built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC). The new aircraft was to possess as much component commonality as possible with the CAC Wirraway, a license built version of the Harvard trainer then in service with the RAAF.
Making its maiden flight only 2 months after it was designed the CA-12 Boomerang first flew in May of 1942 and begun operational use in October of that year with No 2 OCU (Operational Conversion Unit). However the requirement for this sturdy indigenous fighter was to become less urgent as Australia began to receive Spitfire and P-40 Kittyhawk aircraft from Great Britain and the United States, respectively. This and the fact that it was almost ineffective as a fighter saw the Boomerang delegated to the roll of Close Air Support (CAS), a roll which it carried out very effectively in support of Army units over the jungles of New Guinea.

All together a total of 250 Boomerangs were built in 4 variants (CA-12, 13, 19 and 14/A) and were operated by 6 squadrons of the RAAF from 1942 to 1946. The Boomerang was powered by one Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4 Twin Wasp piston engine (produced under license in Australia) developing 1 ,200 hp providing a maximum speed of 305 mph. Armament consisted of two 20mm Canon, four .303in Machine guns and up to four 9Kg Smoke bombs (for target indication).
The beautify restored example represented at Point Cook is owned and operated by Mr. Matt Denning of Oakey Queensland and is one of only two Boomerangs flying in the world today. The result of a restoration project spanning some 27 years, this aircraft has been painstakingly restored to immaculate, flying condition. Matt’s flight from Oakey, Queensland to Point Cook, Victoria taking some 7 hours to complete. One of the features of the Boomerangs flying display was a haunting whistling sound resonating from airflow passing through the gun ports in leading edge of the wings with each pass creating a very surreal sound.

Arguably, the greatest piston engine fighter ever produced, the P-51D Mustang made its indelible mark in aviation history during the Second World War in the skies over Europe and Japan as a high altitude long range-pursuit fighter. The Mustang was adopted by the RAAF in 1944 and went on to see active service in the Korean conflict. Apart from the USA the only other country to produce the Mustang was Australia with 200 machines being built by CAC Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation as the CA-18. This famous fighter was well represented at Point Cook by three beautifully restored examples including Judy Pay and Dick Hourigan’s CA-18 painstakingly restored by The Old Flying Machine Company of Tyabb Victoria . Depicted is an Mk IVA in the markings of the CO of 3 Squadron RAAF as flown by Squadron Leader P M Nash from 26 Nov to 11 Dec 1944. The Mustang was powered by a Rolls -Royce Merlin V1650 power plant producing 1,650HP providing a top speed of 437 mph.

One of the highlights of the Point Cook Air Pageant was the appearance of the HARS (Historical Aircraft Restoration Society) Catalina flying boat. Purchased by HARS for $700,000.00, this aircraft has been restored by dedicated volunteers as closely as possible to the original configuration operated by the RAAF during World War Two (in particular Catalina A24-362) including the distinctive all black paint scheme. FELIX (named after the famous cartoon character) is a PBY-6A (P=Patrol B=Bomber Y=Consolidated Aircraft Corp) built in 1945 and was operated by the United States Navy. After being retrieved from storage for 20 years she was later used as a fire bomber by the Portuguese Government before being purchased by HARS. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney R1830-92 Twin Row 14 Cylinder Air Cooled Radial Engines each producing 1,200 HP providing a maximum speed of 178 mph. Armament consisted of 500 or 1,000 lb Bombs, Mk XIII Torpedoes, 325 lb Depth Charges and five .50cal Machine guns. Australia operated 168 Catalina flying boats during World War Two that were utilized mainly to carry out covert operations including mine laying, predominantly within the South-West Pacific area.
In 2003 the HARS Catalina was flown from France to Australia where it is now a living monument to the servicemen who served in these magnificent aircraft.

Light liaison aircraft were quite popular at the Point Cook Air Pageant with Rob Fox providing the audience with a first class demonstration of the low speed capabilities of his Cessna O-1F Bird Dog beautifully restored in South Vietnamese Air Force marking while Ian Whitney’s very attractive (although static) ex South African Air Force Aeromacchi AM-3CM Bosbok drew a lot of attention from the audience.
Aerobatics are always a very popular part of any air show and Point Cook was certainly no exception with displays featuring the famous RAAF Roulettes aerobatic team, Pip Borman flying his Edge 540 and the Southern Nights in their Harvard Trainers. Flying a tight four ship formation (instead of their usual 6) The Roulettes provided a wonderful display of handling and maneuverability in their PC-9A aircraft. The Pilatus PC-9 is two-seat, single engine, turbo prop aircraft used as a primary basic training aircraft of the Australian Defence Forces (ADF). Pip Borman also thrilled the audience with an excellent display of aerobatics in his colorful ZA (Zivko Aeronautics) Edge 540. The Edge 540 is a US built, single seat, unlimited class aerobatic aircraft powered by a Lycoming IO-450 engine producing in excess of 327 HP providing a climb rate of 3,700 ft/min.
The Southern Knights in particular provided a spectacular display of aerobatics and close formation flying in their Harvard Trainers with one even especially painted to closely represent a Japanese Zero fighter! Their display in their various colored Harvard Trainers was extremely colorful made even more spectacular through to use of smoke.

It is a very sad fact that along with the sprawl of urban development comes also the threat of loosing our more historically important locations such as Point Cook. Point Cook is where the Australian Flying Corps was formed in 1914 and the Royal Australia Air Force was founded in 1923 and as such represents one of the most important establishments in Australia’s rich aviation history. Ninety years to the day after that solitary Bristol Box Kite took to the air it was announced at Point Cook by the Defence parliamentary secretary Fran Bailey that plans to commercially develop the site have finally been scrapped.
This exciting announcement is the result of a six year campaign by various aviation enthusiast groups to save this historically significant establishment from commercial development and maintain it for our future generations to enjoy. If a location of such national historical significance is to be turned in to a commercial development then what hope do we have for our future generations to understand and learn of the sacrifices made by our service men and woman in numerous conflicts including two world wars.

Rob Hynes / CHK6 Australia

Release 4.0/2008

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