Wombat
I don’t recall ever seeing a photo of the CA-15 and a Mustang together and certainly there isn’t one in Stewart Wilson’s book on the CA-15. (Conspiracy theorists will suggest that there isn’t a photograph of Clark Kent and Superman together either!) As for the CA-15 being a modification of the Mustang, this simply is not so. If you look at photos of the various CA-15 designs that preceded the Griffon aeroplane you will see that they look nothing like the Mustang. Indeed they display similarities to several other types as the design evolved. You will see suggestions of Thunderbolt, FW190 and even (as Wilson points out) the Westland Wyvern! It wasn’t until the unavailability of the R-2800 prompted a change to an inline engine that the CA-15 began to take on Mustang characteristics. Of course, by then it was all too late anyway. I’ve often thought that the CA-15 is as iconic to Australia as the Avro Arrow is to Canada and the TSR-2 is to Britain.
maybe it’s the woomera that should be see as australia’s tsr 2/avro arrow as like the tsr 2 the woomera had production jigs and airframes moving down the production line, but like the others politics decided that the raaf should make do with larger numbers of lesser performing airframes.
the ca 11 was the production aircraft and they were being built until the government decided that the raaf should stick with the dap beaufighter as it was already in production,even though the ca11 out performed.
most of the surviving parts come from the unfinished aircraft.
paul(not a beau hater)
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