Ellis Wackett

Stripped of all equipment considered non-essential—including radio sets—to increase range, the aircraft departed on 27 September and journeyed some 17700 km, covering almost 130000 km2 of country and taking 350 photos.

Air Vice Marshal Ellis Charles Wackett, CB, CBE (13 August 1901 – 3 August 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Born on 13 August 1901 in Townsville, Queensland, Ellis Wackett was the third and youngest child of James, an English-born storekeeper, and Alice Wackett (née Lawrence).

Following schooling in Townsville, he entered the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay, New South Wales, in 1914, aged thirteen.

Graduating in 1918, he served as a midshipman aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Monarch and battlecruiser HMS Renown (1916), and later the RAN light cruiser HMAS Brisbane and battlecruiser HMAS Australia.

He also drew on the advice and support of his brother Lawrence, who had established the RAAF's technical services organisation in the 1920s and now, having retired from the Air Force, headed the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC).

He was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in January 1921, and posted to England for study in July.

Wackett was at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham, when he applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1922.

Accepted by the Air Force the following year, he finished at Keyham in August and trained as a pilot on Salisbury Plain.

He then took a one-year post-graduate course in aeronautics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, before returning to Australia to take up his service as a flying officer with the RAAF.

Wackett's first role was to establish parachute instruction within the Air Force.

Commencing his service career as a Royal Australian Navy cadet during World War I, Wackett transferred to the Air Force in 1923 while on an engineering course in Britain.

He qualified as a pilot before completing his studies and returning to Australia, where he inaugurated parachute instruction within the RAAF and made the country's first freefall descent from a military aircraft in 1926.

The following year, he led a three-month survey flight to Papua New Guinea.

His trip home from England had been postponed at the last minute to enable him to be trained; he began instructing volunteers in 1926 at RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, and made Australia's first freefall descent from a military aircraft—an Airco DH.9—on 26 May.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Group Captain Richard Williams, himself made a successful jump on 5 August, to set "a good example" before making the wearing of parachutes compulsory for all aircrew.

On 21 August, Wackett piloted the DH.9 from which Flying Officer Frederick Scherger made the first public display of parachuting in Australia, at Essendon, Victoria.

By August 1927, Wackett had been promoted flight lieutenant and given command of the Papuan Survey Flight formed at RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria.

Consisting of two Supermarine Seagull III single-engined amphibious biplanes and six aircrew, the flight was to examine and photograph the Papuan and New Guinean coasts as far north as Aitape and, if possible, Bougainville.

Wackett's machine (serial A9-5) returned to Melbourne on 26 December and the other (A9–6) on 19 January 1928.

Inclement weather prevented the expedition from reaching Bougainville, and thick jungle cover limited the usefulness of its photographic record.

Nevertheless, the Air Force learned valuable lessons concerning the Seagull's capabilities in a potential wartime role, as it was found to be unsuited to operations in the tropics.

On 14 August 1928, Wackett married Doreen Dove in Melbourne; they had two sons and a daughter.

In 1933, Wackett was posted to England to attend RAF Staff College, Andover.

Its chief engineer from 1935 to 1959, he served on the RAAF's controlling body, the Air Board, for a record seventeen years, and has been credited with infusing operations with new standards of airworthiness.

Wackett became the RAAF's senior engineer with his appointment as Director of Technical Services in 1935.

Returning to Australia, he was promoted to squadron leader and became Director of Technical Services, an organisation within the RAAF's Supply Branch, in May 1935; the appointment made Wackett the Air Force's senior engineer.

The same year, he took charge of the Resources Committee for Electrical Equipment, Scientific and Optical Instruments, one of several subcommittees on the federal government's Defence Resources Board set up to investigate and report on the readiness of Australian industry to provide munitions for defence in the event of international conflict.

Ranked wing commander at the outbreak of World War II, Wackett immediately faced major supply challenges in his role as Director of Technical Services.

Spare parts for the RAAF's mainly British-built equipment were now in short supply, a fact complicated by the infancy of the local aircraft industry and a US arms embargo.

His directorate made whatever use it could of civilian repair facilities, setting up recovery depots to salvage spares from damaged aircraft and other equipment.

By late 1940, Wackett had been promoted temporary group captain, and joined the Flying Personnel Research Committee.

Its members, drawn from the aviation, medical, scientific and technical disciplines, were to study and report upon such factors as aircrew safety, comfort, fatigue, survival, motion sickness, decompression and hypoxia.

Wackett was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 New Year Honours.

A wing commander at the outbreak of World War II, he rose to air commodore by 1942 and assumed the role of Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance.

He established the Technical Branch as a separate department of the RAAF in 1948, and was promoted to air vice marshal the same year.

Wackett served as Air Member for Technical Services until leaving the military in 1959, having been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of the Bath.

From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of the Australian National Airlines Commission, parent of Trans Australia Airlines.

Generally known as "Wack", or "EC" (to distinguish him from his elder brother, aircraft designer Lawrence James Wackett or "LJ"), his prominent chin and nose also earned him the nickname "Punch".

He died in 1984, aged 83.