Looking Back-AWA Aircraft Instruments; By John McIlwaine AWA Historian

One of the little-known products made by AWA was the range of Aircraft Instruments for the WW11 war effort for supply to the Australian Aircraft manufacturers.

 Instruments for the Australian-made aircraft included the de Havilland Mosquito DH98 Bomber first build started in 1942 at DHA Bankstown NSW some 212 were built by 1944. The DAP Department of Aircraft Production Factories at Fisherman’s Bend Victoria and the Aircraft factory at Mascot Sydney built  700 Beaufort Bombers, 350 at each site by 1944.

In addition, some 364 Beaufighters were built at both Fisherman’s Bend and Mascot, and serial numbers of both Beauforts and Beaufighters alternated; odd numbers were built at Fisherman’s Bend and even numbers at Mascot. An interesting insight AWA colleague and fellow member Ross Stell's father as a Railways engineer was involved in the aircraft production, he was seconded to the DAP and sent to Bristol in the UK to learn all about building the Beauforts, on his return, his notebooks recall he was sent to Melbourne to help establish the production at Fisherman’s Bend, Ross has many memories of that time living just opposite Luna Park. St Kilda.

The family moved back to Sydney, where his father worked at the Mascot Aircraft factory which was built at the Aerodrome, (Sydney Kingsford Smith) he became a senior inspector, checking that all components conformed to specifications he had been given by Bristol. In both states sub-assemblies were made in the Railway workshops; in NSW at the Chullora Workshops, and in Victoria at Newport Workshops and Islington Workshops (SA).

Ross whilst at Primary School can recall the time his father took him to work one day so he could watch these big aircraft being assembled from the sub-assemblies

Also during 1936-46, the CAC Commonwealth Aircraft Corp at Fisherman’s Bend Lorimar Street Factory built 755 of the Wirraway aircraft. (Wirraway is an aboriginal meaning for challenge) The Wirraway was a training aircraft and general-purpose military aircraft; it was an Australian development of the North American NA-16 trainer

 The Railway workshops in both Victoria and Chullora Sydney also contributed with sub-assemblies for wartime aircraft production, and of note, the original Fisherman’s Bend Aircraft factory location in the 1930s became the Headquarters and assembly line for Holden cars from 1936.

The Radio Electric Works at Ashfield NSW was the site for many additional activities for the War effort in addition to a large range of Wireless communication Transmitters, Receivers, Radar, navigational aids, and allied components, an urgent demand was placed on the company to manufacture locally aircraft instruments never ever before undertaken in Australia. With the mother country threatened with invasion during 1940 and shipping menaced by enemy submarines, Australia had little choice but to make preparations and contribute what it could to the war effort.

During the war period, 1939-45 and isolated from the rest of the world with little hope of obtaining the equipment and components to make the equipment, additional factory annexes were set up to produce the necessary tooling and components to manufacture a range of aircraft instruments, these comprised Directional Gyro, Gyro Horizon, Sensitive Altimeter, Rate–of-climb Indicator, Air Speed Indicator, Altimeters, some 70.000 aircraft Instruments were made by the company during the period.

These highly sophisticated complex instruments required special conditions to manufacture the delicate Sperry instruments under licence, extensive tooling, specialised operations, and skilled staff to fabricate, assemble, and test the instruments for fitment to Australian aircraft during the war.

 In addition to instruments, artillery directors, Parallescopes, and Aldis lamps were being made during this period along with the development of Radar in WW11.

Previously the men and women at the Radio Electric Works had only been previously employed in the manufacture of speakers, transformers, telephones, and moulded parts and found themselves up against the intricacies of Aircraft Instruments,

The AWA Aircraft factory provided one of the most interesting and credible pages in the history of Australia’s war effort and a credit to the Australian staff dedicated to this wartime work.

Post-war other electronic equipment designed developed and manufactured in Australia by AWA were Aviation Aids, the DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) was invented by James ‘Gerry' Gerrand and under the supervision of Edward George ’Taffy,' Bowen while employed as Chief of the division of Radiophysics of the CSIRO.

The AWA original engineered version was developed in the 1950s, operating in the 200 MHz VHF band, this Australian domestic version was referred to by the Federal Department of Civil Aviation as DME (D) or DME Domestic, and the later international version was adopted by ICAO as DME (1) DME is similar in principle to secondary radar ranging function, except the role of the equipment in the aircraft and on the ground are reversed. DME was a post-war development based on the identification friend or foe (IFF) systems of WW11.

To maintain compatibility, DME is functionally identical to the distant measuring component of TACAN, (Tactical Air Navigation System) used by military aircraft.

 Also the Doppler VOR air navigation beacon, this equipment saw worldwide recognition and was licenced in the ’70s to DECCA Navigation Company Ltd, of England to sell its Australian-designed Doppler VOR beacons in the UK, Western Europe, and in certain African and near countries.

AWA DME often called ‘’milestones in the sky’ ’was updated in the ’70s, operating in conjunction with the AWA manufactured ground beacons provides the pilot with continuous digital indications of distance, speed, and time to station of his aircraft,

Over 100 of these beacons were in service in the ’70s throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea; in addition AWA airborne DME is used by aircraft of our three Defence Services, all Australian airlines, and a number of General Aviation aircraft.

DME transponders are usually paired with an azimuth guidance system to provide aircraft with a two-dimensional capability. A typical combination is a DME collocated with a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) transmitter in a single ground station.

When this occurs, the frequencies of the VOR and DME equipment are paired, such configuration enables an aircraft to determine its azimuth angle and distance from the station. A VORTAC (a VOR co-located with a TACAN) installation provides the same capabilities to civil aircraft but also provides a 2-D navigation capability to military aircraft.

The Australian Government developed and manufactured the TV-VASIS landing aid system which was also offered for sale internationally by AWA  during the ’70s was in operation at 94 major airports in Australia and New Zealand and was one of only two systems that was endorsed by ICAO.

The T-VASIS is an accurate and flexible system that provides guidance information for the safe operation of all existing airline aircraft irrespective of size. Sophisticated yet rugged specialised test instruments for VOR installations displayed by AWA already found an export market in the UK, Sweden, Austria, and Indonesia at the time.

The development and research of fibre optics in Australia by AWA in the 70s would also have a profound effect on the future direction of electronic and telecommunication transmission equipment.

Acknowledge: AWA Publications, AWA Veterans Archives, John McIlwaine AWA history files.

Wikipedia references. Input from Ross Stell former long-time staff of AWA Ashfield.

Following up on the earlier Forum Article AWA aircraft instrument manufacturing during WW2.

Photos from John McIlwain of AWA aircraft instrument manufacturing during WW2.

Photos of aircraft instruments manufactured by AWA during WW2

AWA - Splendid War Record.

The Annual Report of the Chairman of the Board and the Managing Director of A.W.A. given at the 37th Ordinary General Meeting of the Company on October 22, 1945, gave many interesting facts concerning the Company’s wartime achievements which previously it had not been possible to reveal.
The Chairman of the Board, Mr. T. J. Parker, said that following the resignation of Sir Ernest Fisk, Mr. L. A. Hooke was appointed a Director of the Company and also Managing Director.
During the war the Company contributed some 57,000,000 man hours to and £13,000,000 worth of defence equipment was produced by the staff of 5000.

Radio Communications.

The Beam Wireless telegraph service was called upon to handle more than three times its pre-war volume and new radio circuits to the United States, lndia, Ceylon, China, and Barbados were opened at short notice, as well as special wireless provided for the Australian, Royal and United States Navies.
Although communications to ships at sea ceased, one-million-man hours were spent in listening for distress calls alone, of which more than 500 were received. The permanent radio station at New Guinea continued to serve until that country was invaded by the Japanese. That of Port Moresby, in Papua, however, continued throughout the war in spite of the fact that it was subject to more than 100 enemy air attacks. The Company’s staff in this area as the war moved north, went first to Hollandia and then to Leyte, from where many millions of words were sent to Australia.

The Coastal Station at Darwin, which was subject to direct Japanese bombing attacks, renderedvaluable assistance to the forces. Messages to the Troops. In conjunction with Cable and Wireless, special cheap rates were introduced to assist war personnel, and in this respect over 25,000 free messages were despatched between British evacuated children and their parents, and over 1,500,000 messages to the troops were handled for an inclusive charge of 2/6 per message, irrespective of the destination.

One of the circuits installed included the latest seven-unit Multiplex printing equipment, which is not only capable of providing four channels on the one circuit, but gives secrecy and an error proof method of printing. This type of equipment had never before been used over such a long distance and has proved remarkably successful.

The circuits with the United Kingdom, New Zealand and North America are again open to the public and a new system of radio transmission known as single side band will soon be installed, the whole of the necessary equipment being made in the Company’s Radio-Electric works at Ashfield.

Marconi School.

The Company’s Marconi school has trained thousands of operators and technicians for the Fighting Services and the Merchant Navy, while the Marine Department has equipped a large number of vessels with apparatus of all types and has supplied operating staff for Australian and other Allied ships. Special instructional classes in radio technique and operating for officers and men of the A.I.F. and R.A.A.F. were instituted, and more than 4,000 personnel passed through this school. As was to be expected the company’s radar work was outstanding and ranks with the world’s best. The manufacture of the equipment supplied to the American and British Services involved continuous investigation by the staff of the research laboratories.

Aircraft Instruments.

Aircraft Navigational and Engine instruments, such as gyroscopic compasses, artificial horizons,altimeters, airspeed indicators and other instruments were produced and fitted to Australian bomber and fighter aircraft, in all, 70,000 instruments being supplied. The Amalgamated Wireless Valve Company, a subsidiary, produced some 4,000,000 valves of more than 100 types and set up a special section for the development of radar valves.

The Company’s ammunition annexe, erected at its own expense for the manufacturing of gun ammunition, produced many millions of shell fuses armour piercing cores and aircraft shells. This section alone employed about 800 people. Important work was carried out in the field of tropic proofing, the company setting up a special mycological laboratory, which did remarkable work in developing materials suitable for the New Guinea conditions.

Building & Engineering January 24, 1946, Pages 53-54.

Aircraft instruments were not made in Australia before the war, and one of the important tasks of the new industry was to provide ample supplies of these instruments. Their manufacture was spread over three firms. At the works of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd a whole factory was devoted to making compasses, the Sperry gyro horizon, Sperry directional gyro, rate-of-climb indicator, pressure gauges and altimeters. Warburton Franki Ltd of Melbourne concentrated on such equipment as ammeters, voltmeters, and air temperature indicators, while H. A. Chivers of Melbourne made tachometer generators, tachometer indicators and turn-and-bank indicators. In selecting the directional gyro for special mention two considerations have been uppermost: it was then the only device affording fixed directional reference in the cockpit of an aircraft in flight; and its manufacture called for considerable skill.

The instrument was introduced into the manufacturing program at A.W.A. in January 1942. The greatest care had to be exercised in keeping the premises where it was made free from dust. Traditional watch-making anti-dust practices were not good enough; even the type of clothing worn by the employees concerned was carefully regulated. The gyroscopic movement of the instrument had a speed of 11,500 revolutions per minute (an ordinary electric fan made 2,000 a t the most) and being delicately poised could be irreparably damaged if small specks of dust were allowed to enter the pivots or ball races. Operatives were trained to establish by a sense of touch the permissible "play " of 0.0005 of an inch in dynamically balancing the unit. The permissible THE AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY 393 machining tolerance in making the parts of the gyroscope was one ten - thousandth of an inch. Difficulties caused by the unusual features of its castings held up production for several months, but by September 1942 the target of 30 instruments a week was reached. A.W.A's contract ended in May 1945, by which time more than 2,000 instruments had been made.

Coupled with the directional gyro was the gyro-horizon, a device which created for pilots an artificial horizon so that the orientation of an aircraft with respect to the earth's horizon could be indicated accurately without the earth's horizon being visible. Like the directional gyro it consisted of a spinning wheel (15,000 revolutions a minute) supported by gimbals, but it was also fitted with a pendulum and vanes which automatically corrected any drift error caused by friction in the bearings. More than 2,000 of these instruments were made.

The Aircraft Industry Soon after the war, Ch 18, Page 392 & 393

I noticed on the site for the AWA 208PY that an AWA 208P that I have just obtained differs in minor ways from the later 208PY. In fact, the suffix indicates a MINOR revision of the circuit/schematic. The order is Original ----- No Suffix. First revision ----- Suffix = "Z". Second revision ------ Suffix = "Y". Third revision ------- Suffix = "X". I have not seen a Suffix "W" but that is not absolute proof of anything. The suffix does not seem to appear in advertising in anything that I have seen between 1956 and 1975. ALSO This "Suffix System" flows on into radios made by AWA for Email Pty Ltd and others. In the period from 1957 to 1975, Westinghouse, Hotpoint, Airzone are all re-branded AWA models. It may that there are others as well where this system was used - particularly for "Store Brand" radios and car radios made by AWA for various car manufacturers and assemblers in Australia.

Explanation from John McIlwaine, AWA Historian and long term employee of AWA on the model number suffix revisions;

He states the AWA first model number for say a model is 208 P, (P) being for portable, for modifications to the first model only three engineering changes could be made and the letter suffixes X, first change, Y second change and finally Z were used and added to the original 208P thus 208PX, 208PY and 208PZ

.No more changes could be made to the model after three changes, and a new model number would be required. This system was vital to rationalise service manuals and spare parts ordering in the field.

Brian Wilsons observation is correct:

In this example 805GY is the second change (after Z). In this case the T & R suffix indicate that those versions use a 3-speed automatic changer as opposed to Y & W versions single speed changer. The differences between the T & R version could be simply just a different brand or type of record changer. Also some suffixes such as S or U may not have been used in this system. In the case of the 805G a X version is currently not known.