Wartime service In June 1939, in light of the declining situation in Europe and the increasing likelihood of a major conflict, the Chief of the Air staff recommended the expansion of the RAAF to a total of 32 squadrons; of these, preparations for nine general purpose squadrons, which were intended to be equipped with the Wirraway, were immediately put into motion. As its American "cousin" the
T-6 "Texan" (both types having been derived from the NA-16) did for many Allied Air Forces during the Second World War, the Wirraway served as one of the RAAF's main trainer types from 1939. Beside serving as a trainer aircraft they were also operated in combat roles, including as an
emergency fighter. At the outbreak of the
Pacific War in December 1941 Wirraways equipped seven RAAF squadrons: Nos
4,
5,
12,
22,
23,
24 and
25. A group of five Wirraways based at
Kluang in
Malaya for training purposes was pressed into combat against Japanese ground invasion forces; these were generally flown by
New Zealanders with Australian
observers, and had some successes. As early as 1941, reports on the capabilities of Japanese fighter aircraft fuelled the perception that the Wirraway would be incapable of effectively engaging such aircraft; however, the type was judged to possess some merits in combat despite being considered to be obsolete. Regardless, the type was often put into action against the advancing Japanese forces. On 6 January 1942, Wirraways of No. 24 Squadron attempted to intercept Japanese seaplanes flying over
New Britain; only one managed to engage an enemy aircraft, marking the first air-to-air combat between RAAF and Japanese forces. Two weeks later, eight 24 Squadron Wirraways defended the city of
Rabaul from over 100 Japanese attacking bombers and fighters, resulting in the destruction or severe damage of all but two of the Australian aircraft. On 12 December 1942, Pilot Officer J. S. Archer shot down a Japanese fighter aircraft (thought at the time to be a
Mitsubishi A6M Zero, but found after the war to be a
Ki-43 Hayabusa) after having spotted it around 1000 feet (about 300 metres) below him and dived on it, opening fire and sending the aircraft hurtling into the sea. By mid-1943, nearly all frontline use of the Wirraway had come to an end, having been replaced by the newer Boomerang, itself a fighter-orientated derivative of the Wirraway. Twenty-four Wirraways were delivered to the
Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from RAAF storage depots between November 1948 and November 1953. They included a CA-1, a CA-5 and numbers of all subsequent variants; they were operated under their original RAAF serials. One Wirraway (A120-145) was lost during naval service on 18 June 1953 following an engine failure after taking off at Nowra; the pilot survived. The RAN retired its Wirraways in 1957, replacing them with
de Havilland Vampires. After
CAC Winjeels started to enter service, the RAAF commenced phasing out its Wirraways on 4 December 1958 with a farewell
flypast held at Point Cook to mark its retirement from that base. In 1954, Super Spread Aviation, based at
Moorabbin Airport, bought two CA-16 Wirraways and modified them to perform
aerial application operations. Both were almost brand-new, one having flown 9 hours and the other 12 hours; the modifications included the fitment of a
hopper and spraying equipment. In a reflection of much of what was asked of the type during wartime, the two aircraft proved to be inadequate for the task and both were de-registered on 10 April 1956 and later scrapped. Despite the scrapping of these two aircraft and hundreds of others, a healthy number of Wirraways survive today, in aviation museums in Australia,
Papua New Guinea and in the United States; and with 10 on the Australian civil aircraft register in 2011; either flying or under restoration to fly as
warbirds. A Wirraway being operated as a warbird crashed during an
airshow at
Nowra in 1999, killing the two occupants. ==Variants==