Fantasy of Flight owner Kermit Weeks has shared a new video showing the latest engine, taxi test of his recently acquired CAC Wirraway, which will eventually be the only example of the type flying outside Australia.
The type was an Australian development of the North American NA-16 and the predecessor of the CAC Boomerang. This particular aircraft (A20-704) was delivered to the Royal Australian Air Force in 1945 and was slated to be converted to a target tug, although this never happened. It was instead placed in storage at RAAF Tocumwal and later assigned to 24 Squadron before being struck off charge in 1959. In subsequent years it passed through the hands of a number of owners, including Murray Griffiths, who restored the machine and returned it to the air in 1997. It arrived at Fantasy of Flight in 2014 in what Weeks described as “part of a trade for a Sea Fury I sent down in trade for work that he was doing for me several years ago.”
Since its arrival, the Fantasy of Flight team has been working to return the Wirraway to the air, most recently focusing on the engine and brakes. Click below to check out the latest update.
(via Kermit Weeks and Kermit Weeks Hangar Additional Information via Pacific Wrecks and Warbird Registry)
