CAC Woomera

CA-4/CA-11 Woomera
275px
A side view of the Woomera CA-4 prototype, A23-1001.
Type	light bomber reconnaissance dive bomber torpedo bomber
Manufacturer	Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation
Maiden flight	1941
Number built	2

The CAC Woomera, also known as the CAC CA-4 and CAC CA-11, was an Australian bomber aircraft, which was designed and manufactured by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation during World War II. The order for the Woomera was cancelled before it became operational with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Design and development

In 1941, because of a need to replace the Bristol Beaufort and Lockheed Hudson, the RAAF issued Development Specification No. 241. This stipulated an aircraft suitable for: reconnaissance, general bombing, torpedo delivery and dive bombing.

CAC, under Sir Lawrence Wackett, began to re-work an existing, unbuilt design, the CA-4 (sometimes known as the Wackett, and not to be confused with the unrelated CA-6 Wackett single-engine trainer). A prototype CA-4 took to the air on September 19, 1941. The CA-4 was a low wing, twin-engined, dive bomber with a crew of three. It was armed with four nose-mounted .303 calibre machine guns and two remote-controlled twin machine-gun barbettes mounted at the rear of the engine nacelles. It could carry either 500-lb bombs, 250-lb bombs or two torpedoes. It was originally powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C3-G radials. (The CA-4 prototype was scrapped in 1943 after it suffered major damage, from a mid-air explosion due to a fuel tank leak and a consequent fire.)

With a re-designed tail and rudder, and an improved nose armament of two 20 mm cannon and two .303 calibre machine guns, the CA-4 became the CA-11 Woomera.

Production

The RAAF accepted the design and ordered 105 CA-11s on March 8, 1942. However, the prototype CA-11 was not delivered to the RAAF until November 22, 1944. By the time production commenced, the dive-bombing concept had fallen into disrepute, the RAAF was filling the light bomber/reconnaissance/strike role with British-designed Bristol Beaufighters (which were being made in Australia by the Department of Aircraft Production); US-made B-24 Liberator heavy bombers had also become available. Consequently, the original Woomera order was reduced from 105 to 20. After a few Woomeras had been manufactured, the whole program was cancelled and production capacity set aside for Woomeras at CAC was switched to P-51 Mustang fighters.

Although test flights continued into 1945, the finished aircraft were never sold and were scrapped in January 1946.

Operators

Template:AUS

• Royal Australian Air Force

Specifications

Data from

General characteristics

• Crew: 3 (pilot, bomb aimer/navigator, rear gunner)
• Length: 39 ft 7 in ()
• Wingspan: 59 ft 2.5 in ()
• Height: 18 ft 2 in ()
• Wing area: 440 sq ft ()
• Empty weight: 12,756 lb ()
• Max takeoff weight: 22.885 lb ()
• Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C3-G Twin Wasp radial engine, 1,100 hp (820 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 260 mph (420 km/h)
• Range: 2,225 ml ()
• Service ceiling: 23,500 ft ()
• Rate of climb: 2,090 ft/min ()

Armament

• Guns:
  
  • 2 × .303 machine guns in nose
  • 2 × 20 mm Hispano cannons in nose
  • 2 × .303 machine guns in rear firing barbettes
  • 1 x .303 machine gun in ventral position
• Bombs:
  
  • 4× 250 lb (113 kg) bombs
  • or 2× 500 lb (224 kg) bombs
  • or 4× torpedoes and 4 × 25 lb (13 kg) bombs under wings

References

Bibliography

• Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Bombers and Reconnaissance Aircraft, Volume Seven. London: Macdonald, 1967. ISBN 0-356-01477-0.

External links

• adf-serials.com, 2003, "ADF Aircraft Serial Numbers RAAF A23 CAC CA-4/CA-11 Woomera"
• Felix Noble, 1997, "The Woomera Bomber of WWII"

See also

Comparable aircraft
Twin-engine aircraft with dive bombing capability:

• Junkers Ju-88
• Kawasaki Ki-66
• Petlyakov Pe-2
• Savoia-Marchetti SM.85
• Tupolev Tu-2
• Yokosuka P1Y

Designation sequence
CA-3 - CA-4 - CA-6 - CA-11 - CA-12 - CA-13 - CA-14

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "CAC Woomera".