iscover
Looking more like Bertie the star of the Aeroplan Jelly commercials than a real aircraft the first Pika always appeared with the Dept. of Supply (now Dept. of Productivity) Number C-1. This aircraft was written off in a crash in April 1951. (Defence PR)
Project Pika
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On the last day of October in 1950, a very small single-seat aircraft rose from the dry South Australian soil of Woomera. It was the maiden flight of the Government Aircraft Factories Project C Pika, an aboriginal word for “The Flyer”, and was the first jet aircraft to be designed and built in Australia.
Two years earlier, conferences had been held between the Australian and British Departments of Supply to discuss specifications of a high-speed pilotless target aircraft, later to be known as the Jindivik. (GAF Project B). In March 1948, Ministry of Supply specification E/48 for the target aircraft was released, and design work began shortly afterwards at the GAF Fisherman’s Bend plant. The Pika was conceived as a piloted experimental version of the now-famous Jindivik drone and was designed by a GAF team headed by Mr Ian B. Fleming. The use of a piloted test aircraft was meant to reduce the overall development time. Also involved in the project were the Long Range Weapons Establishment, and UK Electronics. The power plant chosen to power the Pika was the Armstrong Siddeley Adder turbojet, which was a straight-je: version of the Mamba ASM3 turboprop and was specially produced for the jet target project by Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd of Britain. The Adder produced a maximum thrust slightly over 10001b.
One of the first design problems encountered involved protecting the very small diameter fuselage from the heat of the engine. This was effected by fitting a specially designed jet pipe nozzle, which ensured that exhaust gases issuing from the tailpipe drew cooling air through the fuselage.
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