| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Founder(s) | Leo Turl, Frank Gannon |
| Defunct | 1936 |
| Headquarters | Mascot, New South Wales, Australia |
| Products | Aircraft |
Tugan Aircraft Ltd. was an Australian aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s. It was based at Mascot aerodrome, now Sydney Airport. It is best-known for having manufactured the Gannet, the first Australian-designed aircraft to enter series production.
The company was formed in 1933 by Leo Turl and Frank Gannon as Turl & Gannon.[1] Both were former employees of Genairco,[2] which had gone out of business earlier that year; they started offering aircraft maintenance services in the former Genairco hangar and quickly acquired the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Charles Kingsford Smith as customers.[1] In order to expand the business into aircraft manufacture, Tugan Aircraft Ltd. was registered as a public company on 5 December 1933 with backing from members of the Carpenter family (owners of W. R. Carpenter & Co. Airlines in Papua New Guinea, later known as Mandated Airlines).[1][3] The first aircraft manufactured was actually a Genairco Biplane, this was built using the wreckage of the third Genairco to be produced and was substantially modified, featuring an enclosed cabin and a de Havilland Gipsy III engine.[4][5][6][7][8]
Charles Kingsford Smith approached the company to develop an improved version of the Codock twin-engine aircraft[9] that Lawrence Wackett had designed and built for him while working for the Cockatoo Island Docks & Engineering Company.[10][11] Tugan Aircraft in turn approached Wackett, who at the time was working for New England Airways; on 14 March 1934 Wackett agreed to act as a consultant to Tugan to design the new type.[6] The name Gannet was suggested for the new aircraft by Kingsford Smith as a contraction of the names Gannon and Wackett.[12]
In order to expand the product line the company entered negotiations with Miles Aircraft Limited to allow licence-production of the Hawk, but agreement could not be reached and none were built.[6] Tugan then proposed building a type broadly similar to the Percival Gull, to be called the Tugan Aircraft Hawk. Although an advanced stage of design was reached, no manufacturing took place.[6]
The Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons announced the formation of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) on 19 June 1936, and that CAC would take over Tugan Aircraft.[6] The takeover was effected on 7 November that year and CAC continued the business of aircraft manufacture in the old Genairco hangar until November 1937, when its new factory in Melbourne was ready.[13]
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