An Australian built aircraft on the assembly line

Place Oceania: Australia, Victoria, Melbourne
Accession Number ART23080
Collection type Art
Measurement sheet: 29.2 x 34.3 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description pencil on paper
Maker Curtis, R Emerson
Date made 1940
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

Portrait of an Australian built aircraft engine on the assembly line, Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Factory at Fisherman's Bend, Melbourne. In 1940 the artist toured the facility with Wing Commander Wackett and described visiting the foundry where the aircraft parts were poured and cast and the assembly hall. Previously Curtis had visited gun making facilities and he wrote '...more thrilling in design, more beautiful and complex than a gun is the aircraft engine...as lovely as a rose window in a cathedral.'