"Australia's Achievement: Industry and Ingenuity"
From The Age, Saturday January 1, 1944

The list of decorations awarded to airmen for distinguished service in the South - West Pacific area includes the names of eight members of Beaufort Squadrons and that of a former Beaufort test pilot.

How many people recall that these Australian airmen won distinction while serving In Australian-built machines? The story of the planning and building of Australia's great fighting plane, the Beaufort, is one of which every Australian may well be very proud, as are the men and women who turned out these famous machines. When Japan declared war, Australia had produced seven Beaufort bombers. There was not one fighter in the country to engage the Japanese machines the first time they raided Darwin, although we had been at war for fifteen months. That made a sorry picture, but viewed from one angle, the picture looked bright, for the seven Beaufort bombers represented seven resourceful and determined steps over the difficulties that at one stage looked insurmountable.

Meeting a challenge between September 1939, and July 1940, plans were made to build Beaufort bombers in Australia. To do this, however, materials and components were to be imported from England, but as the material included engines, propellers, gun turrets, undercarriages, tail-wheel struts, aircraft Instruments, aircraft steels and light alloy extrusions it was more a case of assembling than constructing. Then followed the collapse of France, and it looked as if the Beaufort plan would have to be abandoned. But nothing like that happened. The changed situation in Europe became a challenge to a desperate country, and draftsmen and mechanics worked hard overdrawing board and machine bench. They went ahead step by step. The first was slow and faltering; the second easier, faster and longer. And so seven steps had been made when Japan entered the war, and just recently the five hundredth was completed.

This is a story of achievement. Success was not meteoric and overnight. For a start the Beaufort Division, which builds the bombers and operates as a separate entity within the Department of Aircraft Production, had no trained executives, workshop personnel or assured supplies of aircraft materials. It opened up business in an empty office. Now there are 10,000 men and women on the payroll, and there are 500 sub-contractors who employ several thousand operatives, producing 39,000 different items of aircraft parts and instruments.

The men and women who are building Beauforts come from the stage, the circus tent, the bake house, the bar-room. The division employs a pastry cook, who helps to make ship-busters now instead of doughnuts. It has a sword swallower who hopes that through Beauforts he might make Tojo do something in that line, and a trapeze artist who is helping Beauforts to fly through the air with the greatest of ease. There are a powder-monkey, a brewery sample-room worker, a barman and a shire ranger on the payroll.

Patience goes with faith and determination, and it took patience to train staff from all sections of life. But the interest and eagerness of untrained workers helped. They wanted to build bombers for their sons and brothers to fly. And they have done a good job. Every hour of every day Beauforts, built and serviced by Australians, are being flown by Australians on patrols overseas, around Australia in all weather, under all conditions convoying transports and supply ships, tracking of surface vessels, attacking enemy bases and shooting down Zeros.

Charwomen of the Air. Up to recently Beauforts were charwomen of the air, although they have the name of a very illustrious line of aristocrats. They swept the skies and the seas, keeping the sea-lanes clear and the lines free, cleaning up the corners on anti-submarine patrols for instance, they sank a large Japanese submarine off the east coast. All this drudgery was very necessary; it kept the place tidy but Beaufort pilots and crews are now getting some of the missions and operations they have yearned for since squadrons were formed. Beauforts are torpedo bombers and harbours crammed with shipping are their natural targets. So they are creating havoc within the twin harbours of Rabaul, sinking cruisers and tankers and all types of merchant vessels. The first Beaufort built in Australia actually broke records in country flying. It flew 1200 miles from Townsville to Darwin in 6 hours 25 minutes, and on the same day flew to Adelaide, 1770 miles away, in 9 hours. Then it flew from Adelaide to Perth (1570 miles) in 8 hours, and from Perth to Melbourne (1710 miles) in 8 hours 10 minutes. This machine spent 378 hours in the air and covered 74,288 miles before being delivered to the R.A.A.F. Later aircraft have improved on these performances.

The Beaufort is a twin-engine, heavily armoured aircraft, possessing exceptional manoeuvrability. It is equipped as a torpedo or bomb-carrying attack plane or for long-range reconnaissance. Beauforts were designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd. (designer of the famous Beaufighters, which the Beaufort division is building here, too), but modifications and improvements were introduced, such as the substitution of the 1200 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Wasp twin engines for the 1065 h.p. Bristol Taurus sleeve-valve engine. This increased power and range. Beauforts can touch 400 miles an hour in a controlled dive, and can fly to all parts of Australia in less than 24 hours. Pratt and Whitney engines are now manufactured in Australia.

An Occupational Medley   Here is another story of achievement. In 1941 Australia was told it would not be possible for her to produce the first gun turret for Beauforts in under two years. But the first was turned out in six months and volume production was obtained in eighteen months. Interest and enthusiasm and patriotism have confounded unemotional technical opinion before. So it is that when they are allied with training they make a winning team. The Beaufort Division, to get together that team, established training centres in Victoria and New South Wales, and converted butchers, bakers, clerks, hair dressers and even women who had no experience beyond house-hold duties into efficient units on the production line. At the present time over 80 per cent of the 10,000 Beaufort employees who are right behind the damaging raids the bombers are making on Rabaul are men and women without previous factory experience, and the proportion of skilled operatives in plants is well below, 10 per cent They handle 33,000 different tools, which cost £1,000,000. The items produced in Australia for the bombers range from small rivets and simple metal brackets to complicated mechanical assemblies and delicate flying instruments. One sub-contractor supplies for each aircraft 13,600 pressed-metal detail parts, 2000 sub-assemblies and 40 component assemblies. Oleo legs and tail-wheel struts, constituting a complex retractable landing gear, are being supplied by a Sydney company. Aircraft steels come from the Broken Hill Pty. Co. Ltd., and the Australian Aluminium Co. Ltd., which also produces light alloy and duralumin sheet.

As in the case of almost every industry, new or old, substitutes had to be found to replace materials used in the construction of bombers, which are no longer available here. Australian timbers, such as Queensland maple, Silver Quandong and King William pine, were used Instead of American spruce, and the use of ball bearings was reduced by 55 percent on the airframe and controls and 36 percent, on accessories by the introduction of oilite type bushes running in steel casings.

Created in the face of adversity, the Beauforts had to be tough. Recently the pilot of one which was out on armed reconnaissance sighted a Japanese aircraft carrier, three heavy cruisers and five destroyers. He went down to investigate, and was attacked by four Zeros. He shot down one then flew in and out of cloud while he fought the others. He finally outwitted them and returned to base with 60 holes through tanks, starboard main-plane and engine nacelle. Part of the spar of the tail was shot away and one of the tyres punctured, but the machine landed safely.  The nightly attacks on Rabaul, both torpedo and bombing, Beauforts over the past few weeks have earned special commendation from the American 5th Air Force. The sword swallower's hope may be fulfilled.