Aviation development in Australia
Throughout its short history, life in Australia was shaped by two main characteristics of this isolated sub-continent; its large size and the scarcity of population. Two technologies had to - and did - play an essential role in opening up the outback: transport and communications.
Of all forms of transport, air transport was best suited for inland operations and was the main factor in overcoming this tyranny of distance, enabling the population of the outback to have some physical links with the seaboard cities. As will be seen in the text, Australians took to this new form of transport with their usual energy and inventiveness and, in the process, created the second oldest airline in the world. The need to ensure medical care for remote stations and homesteads resulted in a unique and typically Australian innovation - The Flying Doctor Service. Australia is one of the most airminded nations on earth and the yearly level of airline passengers closely approximates the total population. At the same time, the technical level of operations and maintenance has been such that Australian air transport has been consistently the safest in the world.
The biggest problem in aviation is flying and landing in conditions of low or bad visibility. Amalgamated Wireless Australia (A.W.A.) pioneered the use of airborne 'wireless' equipment in Australia and installed such equipment in Kingsford-Smith's Southern Cross in 1928. The installation of navigational radio beacons at Essendon in 1935 and then at Mascot was another step to improve the capability of aircraft to find airports in conditions of bad visibility. A.W.A. introduced the world's first mandatory DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) and in the sixties they designed and produced fully solid state VOR (Very High Frequency Omni Range) beacons, which were - and still are - used in Australia and overseas.
Australian innovators were instrumental in developing the new 'blind landing' system for aircraft which will become world standard in the next decade. This microwave landing system (MLS) utilises the principle of 'Time Referenced Scanning Beam' (TRSB), which was proposed, in the early seventies, by the Radiophysics Division of CSIRO, under Dr. Paul Wild. The Australian signal system was chosen as standard format by the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) in 1975 and by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) in 1978.
An engineered version of the system, called MITAN, was developed by industry (A.W.A. and Hawker de Havilland) under a contract to the Department of Transport, and successfully demonstrated by an installation at Tullamarine in the late seventies. This was followed by major government funding and the formation of a company called INTERSCAN, to develop equipment of the same name and tender for the requirements of F.A.A. Whilst the bid for the Federal Aviation Agency tender was not successful, the company now produces other microwave devices and antennae for local and U.S. markets.
THE AVIONICS UNIT
AWA involvement in the development of the Australian aviation industry began with the manufacture and installation of the wireless set in Kingsford Smith's Fokker trimotor monoplane The Southern Cross in 1928. The same wireless set was installed in aircraft belonging to ANA who operated aircraft on the mail run from England to Australia.
In 1935, the Aviation Department was established to handle the installation and maintenance of communication equipment in aircraft operating regular airline services in Australia. AWA were responsible for the installation of two basic units, a transmitter and a receiver. For example, in the 1930's a Rapide passenger carrying aircraft was fitted with an AWA Type 110 Transmitter and a car broadcast receiver converted for medium frequency operation.
In 1937, Australians began to take a real interest in Aviation.
Aircraft fleets changed from being predominantly fabric types to metal. Changes were likewise happening in airborne radio equipment - high frequency communication, airborne DF and VHF radio range equipment were being installed in aircraft.
The Second World War had its impact on the Aviation department.
Many hundreds of repair jobs were done on the varied and intricate equipment carried by RAAF, American and Allied warplanes. There was plenty of scope for initiative, for few reliable instruction books on servicing were available and the scarcity of spare parts made improvisation a necessity.
Soon after VJ day, the Aviation depots became a hive of industry as the Airline Companies added more aircraft to their fleets and more airline companies were formed. More and more Airline owners, Aero Clubs were becoming conscious of the need for radio communications.
In 1948, AWA successfully negotiated a contract (known as 'The Pool' contract) for the overhaul, repair and maintenance of the radio equipment fitted to all domestic airline operators at the time.
The proposal was that members of the Pool would each contribute a number of spare units and these would be available to all members as required. Apart from spare units, the proposal was that members would utilise a common contractor, AWA, to maintain the aircraft installations, repair and overhaul the airborne units and administer the operation of the 'Pool'. Charges to each Pool member would be based on the equipment installed in each aircraft and the flying hours of each aircraft.
Responsibility was accorded to the aviation division, although small in numbers has built up a high level of expertise in the aircraft radio-servicing field.
The potential for growth in the-aviation area was demonstrated by AWA building up ifs workforce in the aviation department from 28 employees in 1945 to 198 in 1950. The Pool contract served the Australian Airline industry for over 40 years providing both line and workshop support.
In the 1980's, government aviation policy began to put into place mechanisms to deregulate the Australian airways. This, together with the recession, means that the airlines re-evaluated the merits of 'the Pool' contract. The decision was made and the Pool contract was terminated on 31 December 1991.
To be continued...
