As such, a surplus of this engine type was made available for use in Australia and was promptly set into the Boomerang fuselage. With aircraft development hitting full stride in England and the United States, the Pratt & Whitney brand Twin Wasp series engine was deemed too underpowered for their new design. Armament was excellent and consisted of 2 x 20mm cannons in the wings and an array of 4 x 7.7mm machine guns in the wings. The pilot sat behind the powerplant compartment and was situated under a glazed canopy. Additionally, the empennage and the retractable landing gear system were also of the preceding design's creation which essentially made the Boomerang something of a conversion model to her origins. Wings - which were taken directly from the Wirraway design - were forward and low-mounted on the fuselage which, in turn, was of an all-new design. The Boomerang was of a utilitarian and highly conventional design, appearing much in line with those early stout fuselage monoplanes featured in the latter half of the 1930's. It would seem that this British Commonwealth territory might be no more. However, with the consistent advancements made by Imperial Japan throughout Asia and in the Pacific, Australian soil was now ripe for the taking. As with other facets of Australian war-production, aviation design was hardly given much attention prior to the war. Based on the CAC Wirraway, which in turn was spawned from the American NA-16 trainer aircraft produced by North American, the Boomerang was developed in direct response to the impending Japanese invasion of the Australian homeland. The Commonwealth Boomerang (also known as the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation - or "CAC" - Boomerang) was of completely Australian indigenous design.
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