23 Facts About Ellis Wackett

Air Vice Marshal Ellis Charles Wackett, CB, CBE was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force.

Ellis Wackett became the RAAF's senior engineer with his appointment as Director of Technical Services in 1935.

Ellis Wackett established the Technical Branch as a separate department of the RAAF in 1948, and was promoted to air vice marshal the same year.

Ellis Wackett served as Air Member for Technical Services until leaving the military in 1959, having been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Ellis Wackett was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in January 1921, and posted to England for study in July.

Ellis Wackett was at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham, when he applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force in 1922.

Ellis Wackett then took a one-year post-graduate course in aeronautics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, before returning to Australia to take up his service as a flying officer with the RAAF.

In 1933, Ellis Wackett was posted to England to attend RAF Staff College, Andover.

Ellis Wackett's directorate made whatever use it could of civilian repair facilities, setting up recovery depots to salvage spares from damaged aircraft and other equipment.

Ellis Wackett drew on the advice and support of his brother Lawrence, who had established the RAAF's technical services organisation in the 1920s and now, having retired from the Air Force, headed the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation.

Ellis Wackett was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 New Year Honours.

Ellis Wackett would serve on the Air Board for the next seventeen years, a record tenure for the RAAF, his experience and intellect making him, in the words of Air Force historian Alan Stephens, "singularly adept at bringing a committee around to his point of view".

Ellis Wackett supported Air Vice Marshal Joe Hewitt, the Air Member for Personnel, in fostering apprenticeships as part of what Stephens considered the "education revolution" that took place in the RAAF during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Ellis Wackett played a key role in establishing technical services as a distinct department within the RAAF, rather than forming part of the Supply Branch as in previous years.

For flexibility, and to ensure that the flying and engineering branches had a better appreciation of their respective operations, Ellis Wackett supported the practice of some general duties officers continuing to perform engineering work, and as many technical officers as possible receiving secondary training as aircrew.

Ellis Wackett was disappointed by the limits imposed by the Air Board on career advancement for his personnel: the General Duties Branch in the late 1940s was permitted to maintain thirty-seven officer positions of group captain and above but the Technical Branch was allowed only fourteen such slots, though both departments had an almost identical overall strength of just under 400 staff.

In 1953, Ellis Wackett established advanced diploma training for twenty-five airmen annually at Melbourne Technical College, the graduates receiving commissions as pilot officers.

Ellis Wackett further initiated RAAF sponsorship of a chair of aeronautics at the University of Sydney.

Ellis Wackett was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1957 New Years Honours.

Ellis Wackett rose to the Vice Chairmanship of ANAC before retiring in 1968.

Ellis Wackett was elected a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Ellis Wackett was followed by a series of leaders of the Technical Branch who shared his vision, including Air Vice Marshals Ernie Hey and James Rowland.

Ellis Wackett was among those considered as possible successors to Air Marshal George Jones as Chief of the Air Staff when the latter was retired in 1952, but Prime Minister Robert Menzies' federal government chose an RAF officer for the role, Air Marshal Sir Donald Hardman.