Making final adjustments to a Wackett trainer monoplane

Curtis was shown around the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Factory, Melbourne, by Wing Commander Lawrence Wackett (1896-1982) who ' ...took me under his wing and eagle like "flew" me around the shops. I'll never forget that first walk through the factory, Wackett's swift, purposeful stride, his enthusiasm over details of construction, ideas sweeping him ahead to a vision of the thing as a whole. Here was a dreamer, designer, builder, pilot and manager all in one big frame of a man, young dynamic, with the shoulders of a prize fighter...This aircraft production plant was really his. The planes and the engines were somehow part of him.'

This drawing shows a Wackett, an Australian designed and built plane, in the foreground whilst in the background is a locally built Gannet aircraft.