Air Vice-Marshal Ellis Charles Wackett, (13 August 1901 – 3 August 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). 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. 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.
Wackett became the RAAF's senior engineer with his appointment as Director of Technical Services in 1935. 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".Stephens and Isaacs, High Fliers, pp. 97–99
Early career 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 , and later the RAN light cruiser HMAS Brisbane and battlecruiser HMAS Australia.Personnel file: Wackett, Ellis Charles at National Archives of Australia. Retrieved on 28 August 2009. He was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in January 1921, and posted to England for study in July.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 337–338 Wackett was at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham, when he applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1922.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 90–91 Accepted by the Air Force the following year, he finished at Keyham in August and trained as a pilot on Salisbury Plain.Wackett, Ellis Charles at World War 2 Nominal Roll. Retrieved on 4 August 2009. 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. 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. Stripped of all equipment considered non-essential—including radio sets—to increase range, the aircraft departed on 27 September and journeyed some , covering almost of country and taking 350 photos. Wackett's machine (serial A9-5) returned to Melbourne on 26 December and the other (A9–6) on 19 January 1928.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 412–413 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.Wilson, The Eagle and the Albatross, pp. 26–27
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. 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.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 70 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.Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 28
World War II
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.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 94 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, having retired from the Air Force, headed the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC). 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.Walker, Medical Services of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, p. 325
Wackett was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 New Year Honours. In June, he became the RAAF's representative on the federal Aircraft Advisory Committee, set up to assist the Director-General of Aircraft Production. As well as members from governmental and scientific bodies, the committee included delegates from aircraft manufacturers such as de Havilland Australia and CAC, Lawrence Wackett acting as Chief Technical Advisor.Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 388 Later that year, the two brothers joined the academics on the newly formed Australian Council for Aeronautics, established by Prime Minister John Curtin to advise government, educational and scientific organisations on technical developments in the aircraft industry.Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, p. 405
Raised to air commodore, Wackett was appointed the first Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance (AMEM) on 4 June 1942.Stephens, Going Solo, p. 500 As AMEM, he sat on the Air Board, the RAAF's controlling body, which consisted of its most senior officers and was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 112 Along with the new position of Air Member for Supply and Equipment, filled by Air Commodore George Mackinolty, AMEM had been created to replace the positions of Director-General of Supply and Production, a civilian post, and Air Member for Organisation and Equipment.Ashworth, How Not to Run an Air Force!, p. 129 Wackett would serve on the Air Board for the next seventeen years, a record tenure for the RAAF, his experience and intellect making him, in the words of Air Force historian Alan Stephens, "singularly adept at bringing a committee around to his point of view".Stephens, Going Solo, p. 81 During the war, the Air Board oversaw expansion from a complement in 1939 of 246 obsolescent machines such as CAC Wirraways, Avro Ansons and Lockheed Hudsons, to a strength in 1945 of 5,620 sophisticated aircraft including Supermarine Spitfires, P-51 Mustangs, de Havilland Mosquitoes and B-24 Liberators; to support this force, the RAAF had provided all-through training for 18,000 technical staff, and further education for 35,000 more schooled initially outside the service.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 152–154, 170–173
Post-war career Following the end of the war, Wackett contributed to "Plan D", the blueprint for restructuring the RAAF sponsored by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal George Jones. A major facet of Plan D, adopted in June 1947, was its encouragement of local industry to design and build military trainers and produce more sophisticated combat aircraft under licence from overseas manufacturers. This policy eventually led to the CAC Winjeel basic trainer and Australian co-partnership in production of the CAC Sabre jet fighter and GAF Canberra jet bomber.Stephens, Going Solo, p. 188Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 221–222 Wackett also supported Air Vice-Marshal Joe Hewitt, the Air Member for Personnel, in fostering apprenticeships as part of what Stephens considered the "education revolution" that took place in the RAAF during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Apprentice Training Scheme, designed to raise the standard of technical roles in the Air Force, opened early in 1948 at the Ground Training School in RAAF Station Wagga, New South Wales, to provide education and technical training for youths aged fifteen to seventeen. By 1952, it had been renamed the RAAF School of Technical Training.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 185–189
Wackett played a key role in establishing technical services as a distinct department within the RAAF, rather than forming part of the Supply Branch as in previous years. Mindful of the increasing responsibility that was being placed on scientific and technical resources in the modern Air Force, he had raised the question of a specialist engineering branch immediately after the war, and in March 1946 gained broad approval for its establishment. After eighteen months of work defining its scope and responsibilities, the Technical Branch was formed under Wackett's leadership on 23 September 1948, his goals being "to support the operational power of the RAAF by providing the most efficient technical organisation possible" and "to increase the effectiveness of air power through technical development". This in turn led to a separate "list" of engineering personnel, as opposed to the earlier Technical List subgroup under the General Duties Branch.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 171–173