The CAC Wirraway, a direct descendent of the North American NA-16, and older cousin of the NA T6, SNJ and Harvard, turned 75 yesterday with the event celebrated at the Australian National Aviation Museum where the 8th production and oldest surviving CAC Wirraway A20-10 was unveiled after a recent intense spruise up having been returned to her original 1939 pre-war delivery silver colour scheme, and fired back to life after @25 years indoor display.
This aircraft is the oldest surviving Wirraway, and perhaps other than an NA-16-2A/NA-20 surviving in South America, is likely to be one the oldest NA-16 descendents surviving in the world, and retains the straight trailing edge wing outer panels, corrugated fin skins, and rear steel tube fuselage frame of that earlier NA Design that persisted into the BC-1, SNJ-1, Harvard I and BT-9 but were lost in the later designs of the Yale and SNJ-2, and the even later T-6 / Harvard Series.
The CA-1 model of Wirraway is effectively a licence built NA-16-2K / NA-33, and I believe it is both older physically, and in design, than any of the NA related types now preserved in the USA, but am happy to be corrected?
More info at the museums facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/moorabbinairmuseumRegards
Mark Pilkington
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