"Progress with Beauforts. Chullora Scene."
From the Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday November 28, 1940

Great progress has been made at the Bristol Beaufort workshops at Chullora since the last official inspection by the then Minister of Supply, Sir Frederick Stewart, on June 10th , when the Aircraft Construction Commission was faced with seemingly unsurmountable difficulties because of failure of promised deliveries of jigs and vital parts from Britain.
The workshops at Chullora, which are making front fuselages, stern frames, undercarriages, observer's screens, and other parts, now look like an aircraft factory.

Some hundreds of men are either making parts or instructed to take an efficient place in the new industry. The staff will be augmented in the near future.

In addition to the Chullora factory, the New South Wales units for building Beauforts include part of the Eveleigh workshops and an assembly building at Mascot. Following the recommendation of the British. Aircraft Mission, which visited Australia shortly before the war began, it was decided to co-opt the various State railway workshops to produce the Beaufort, which is a twin-engined torpedo reconnaissance bomber.

Because Britain's need is greater than Australia's, it has been decided to substitute Pratt and Whitney twin-row engines (which will soon be made near Sydney) for the Bristol Taurus units which it was intended to import. This in itself involves an important local modification of the engine bearers.

More than 30,000 separate major parts and bits and pieces are in a completed Beaufort. Accordingly, the Aircraft Construction Commission has been organising a widespread sub-contracting system, and now local factories
Are contributing rivets, bar material, sheeting, forgings bolts and nuts, pins and other items. At Chullora, components such as stringers, formers, sheet panels, and brackets are being made.

On the Chullora floor can be seen locally made "mock-ups" - the trade name for a full-scale wooden model. On these the workman shape the sheet metal for the real machine. Modern de-greasing, salt bath, and anodising plants have been installed. Gas rising from the bottom of the de-greasing plant removes the oily protection from sheet metal. Duralumin, before being shaped, is immersed in a 500 degrees centigrade hot salt bath to make it pliable. The anodising plant, with successive treatments of chromic acid and cold and hot water, gives metal parts a film of artificial corrosion to prevent deterioration in the aircraft on service.
ARRAY OF JIGS.

For the construction of the front part of the fuselages a battery of main jigs has been erected and is now coming into full use. A large undercarriage jig is in the centre of the floor, and it is believed that the whole of the retractable landing gear will eventually be made in Australia.

One of the interesting jigs is that used for shaping the observer's screen, which is virtually the nose of the machine and is a transparent material mounted on metal ribs. The jig clamps the material members into position until they are riveted together; then the transparent material is placed over the ribs. Observer's screens are used in American types such as the Lockhead Hudson, well-known British bombers, and most of the German medium and long-range machines.

Many of the undelivered jigs from Britain have now been made locally. The impossibility of obtaining the jigs from Britain has been one of the main reasons for delays in proceeding with manufacture.
Work on the Beauforts is being supervised by Australian experts who were sent to the Bristol works in Britain to study manufacturing procedure. They have been allocated to workshops in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

THE ENGINE FACTOR The local production of Beaufort's in numbers naturally depends on the supply of engines, and in the respect the start of output at the new twin-row engine factory must be co-ordinated with the making of the airframes. Tools valued at 750 000 pounds are now being assembled in Sydney, and its planned to open the engine works early next year. Attempts and now being made to enlists competent machinists for a three month's conversion course at the Commonwealth Aircraft Company's works, Fisherman's bend, Melbourne, in making a modern aero engine. The Aircraft Company is already producing single row Pratt and Whitney engines for Wirraway's.

Delays in making the Beaufort in Australia Probably mean that the type will no longer be in the first rank of overseas frontline aircraft when they are produced in large numbers here, but it must be remembered that the workshops being set up will be capable of changing to the manufacture of an improved twin-engined bomber, or newer types designed by the Bristol Company or other British manufacturers.

In the producing the Beaufort, which is a marathon task, Australian workmen are receiving experience in making one of the most complicated of modern war machines, and are participating in the first local attempt at a heavy all-metal bomber. As a result of experience with the Beaufort it may be possible later to develop a type particularly suitable for Australian conditions.

The first Beaufort's to fly in Australia will be naturally be assembled mostly from British parts, but these will be followed by the All-Australian version.

The performance of the Beaufort is still on the secret list, but the British Air Ministry has stated that it is faster than the latest version of the Blenheim, which has a top speed of 295 miles an hour. It is fitted with a power-operated gun turret on top of the fuselage aft of the cabin.