Commonwealth CA-15

12/15/2005. Remarks by John Hopton: "The CA-15 is an un-named experimental prototype. It is not an imitation Mustang (which it left for dead!)."

10/31/2023. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Never officially named or designated and referred to only by the RAAF contract number under which it was evolved, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) CA-15 was an all-metal stressed-skin monoplane on which work was initiated in 1943. The fighter was designed around the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-10W Double Wasp eighteen-cylinder air-cooled turbo-supercharged radial engine. The intended armament comprised six 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns.

The non-availability of the Double Wasp power plant after prototype construction began led to the CA-15 being reworked to take a 2,305 hp Rolls-Royce Griffon 61 twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled engine driving a four-bladed propeller. With this engine and serialed A62-1001, the prototype was finally flown, with CAC test pilot Jim Schofield at the controls, from Fishermen's Bend Aerodrome, Melbourne, Victoria, on March 4, 1946.

Subsequently a limited and somewhat desultory flight test program was started by the RAAF's Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU), however, this was interrupted on December 10, 1946.

(Johan Visschedijk Collection)

That day, flown by Flt. Lt. J.A.L. Archer, the CA-15 suffered a hydraulic failure on approach to Point Cook, 14 mls (22 km) south-west of Melbourne. While the tail wheel was down and locked, the main landing gear was partly down and could not be retracted or lowered any further. Landing on the tail wheel, the aircraft leaped, settled back on its nose and air scoop, and skidded to a stop.

After repairs at CAC, the aircraft was returned to ARDU in 1948, and the flight test program was continued. However, its results were largely of academic interest owing to the advent of the jet fighter, the prototype was scrapped in 1950.