Country of origin:

Australia

Description:

Single-seat light monoplane

Power Plant:

One 63 kw (85 hp) six-cylinder, two-cycle, rotary engine

Specifications:

History:

Mr Mervyn Victor Richardson (1893 – 1972), later founder of the well known motor mower company, Victa Consolidated Industries, was born at Yarramalong, NSW and was one of the sons of Archibald George Heron Richardson and his wife, Charlotte Martha, nee Griffith. Mr Richardson was an amateur designer and mechanic. After working as a jeweller and sign-writer, in 1914, with his elder brother Archibald, he decided to build an aeroplane.  In the 1920s he designed a vehicle called the Austin Wasp, a duck-tailed coupe body for the Austin 7 car which at that time was assembled in Australia.  In his later years from 1948 he built motor mowers fitted with Villiers engines. He went on to set up Victa Mowers Pty Ltd and from 1953 was the manager of the company, which eventually had 3,000 employees and buit 143,000 lawn-mowers a year for export to 28 countries.

In 1958 the Company set up a facility at Milperra, NSW and diversified into private telephones, Victa project homes, and aircraft production. He was instrumental in having the Victa Airtourer placed into production, and the development of the Aircruiser, this aircraft eventually being sold to New Zealand interests and being later developed to become the AESL CT-4 Airtrainer.  The Company also was involved in the development of the four-seat R-2, the R-101 Gyrocopter etc.

Mr Richardson was always interested in aviation and in 1914, with his elder brother Archibald, designed and, with the aid of staff at the NSW State Aviation School, built his own aircraft and engine.  This machine was a small monoplane fitted with a six-cylinder two-cycle rotary engine developing 63 kw (85 hp) at 2,200 rpm driving two two-blade contra-rotating propellers.  The theory was that this propeller would “take-up the reactionary engine torque and make for better manoeuvrability”. The plan was to build an aircraft engine which would be suitable for military purposes and sell it to the Australian Government.

Work on the engine commenced in 1913 at the Rupert Cook Brickworks engineering facility at Enfield, NSW. It was designed by Archibald Richardson. The engine was completed in 1916 and featured aluminium pistons. The aircraft built by Mervyn Richardson, with the assistance of Harold Eagle, Leslie Hankie and Ted Sparks, has been described as an ornithopter, and is said to have become known as the Wasp. The machine was named Albatross and was built to provide a test bed for the engine. A claim made at the time was that the engine would deliver 75 kw (100 hp) for a weight of 54 kg (120 lb).

The aircraft was of monoplane configuration with control by way of wing warping.  Construction was of spruce with calico covering.  In July 1918 the brothers were granted approval to use Ham Common (which later became RAAF Richmond) to test the machine. It  is said it was tied to a tree and the engine run at maximum revolutions for 36 hours, was then dismantled and checked for damage, and then reassembled.  An experienced pilot was employed to do some testing but he found the aircraft tail heavy and suggested alterations be made.  However, after the alterations were completed, he did not return and the Richardson brothers continued with development of their design.

Some taxiing tests were carried out on 30 June 1917 by Captain W ”Billy” Stutt.  On 21 June 1918 the machine suffered an accident during its conveyance to the aerodrome, needing some repair work before testing could commence. Taxiing tests were carried out at Ham Common satisfactorily and consideration was given to making a test flight.  Film was taken of the aircraft being demonstrated by the Richardson brothers, it is said at Mascot aerodrome, but is believed to be at Ham Common.

It seems Archibald Richardson, during taxiing trials before flight, lost control and the aircraft was wrecked.  A report of the time stated “the brothers, whose limited capital had long since given out, gave up the venture and went back to outside employment.”  Reports indicate the machine refused to fly, was later sold to the Auto Aviation School, Sydney and had to be removed from the airfield by August 1918.

It is believed the engine installed was the engine that was designed and built for submission to the military authorities of the time, and that the aircraft was only designed and built in order to demonstrate the practicality and performance of the engine.  The aircraft was quite small, having a round shaped fuselage, a turnover frame forward of the cockpit and small tail surfaces.  There is no record of it having been actually flown. The aircraft did not survive. It seems it was towed to Enfield, NSW where the airframe was hung from the rafters of a shed but by 1935 it was removed and burnt, having suffered at the hands of time. The engine was held in a private collection under a house at Strathfield, NSW until it was discovered in the 1970s.  It was later gifted to the collection held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.