WW2 Designer worked on both sides

[as...@wombat.newcastle.edu.au]

From as...@wombat.newcastle.edu.au

The following obituary was published in the November issue of the newsletter
of the New South Wales branch of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia.

OBITUARY - FRED DAVID
Aeronautical Engineer.

By Gary Sunderland
We are sad to report the passing in Melbourne of the distinguished
Aeronautical Engineer, Frederick William David, aged 94. Fred David
was born in Austria near the turn of the century and saw service in
the forces of the Emperor in WW1. After the war he obtained an engineering
degree and worked for Heinkel where, in 1932, under the Gunther brothers,
he participated in the design of the He 70 "Blitz" (Lightening).
This all-metal fast transport achieved 360 km/h (225mph).
A He 70G-1 D-UBOF (c/n 1692), modified to accept a 810 hp Rolls Royce
Kestrel, was sold to Britain (see footnote) and was used up to 1944
by Rolls Royce as a flying test bed. It was registered G-ADZF and with
the Kestrel, obtained a speed of 410 km/h.

After Hitler was made Chancellor by Hindenberg in 1933 a ban was placed on
Jews working in the aviation industry and Fred was forced to leave Heinkel.
Ernst Heinkel, using his contacts with the Japanese, arranged a position for
Fred with Aichi Tokei Denki KK who were developing a bomber for the Japanese
Navy utilising many of the He 70 but with a radial engine and a fixed
undercarriage.

Fred worked for two years on the detailed design of the new Aichi D3A Bomber
but as a foreigner he was treated with great suspicion and was virtually
under armed guard at all times. In fact, he only saw the completed D3A once.
Later, the Aichi D3A1 became the first Japanese Aircraft to drop bombs on an
American Target when it participated in the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl
Harbour. The type was code named Val by the allies.

With the spreading influence of the German Nazis Fred was no longer safe in
Japan and was forced to move on. He contacted Lawrence Wackett who was then
organising the new Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) factory in
Melbourne and offered his services.

CAC was being set up to build the North American NA33 design under licence
as the Wirraway and the far sighted Wackett, always committed to local
design where possible, readily agreed to sponsor Fred's migration to
Australia.

Fred worked on various CAC designs and had a major hand in that of the CAC
Boomerang. By 1943 Fred was Chief Designer at CAC, But because of his
previous citizenship was classed as an enemy alien and had to report to the
police each week. At that time the stop-gap Boomerang was the most urgent
and top secret project in Australia!

His last task at CAC was the design of the CA-15 fighter which was powered
by a Rolls Royce Griffin and achieved 448 mph but was too late to see
wartime service.

After the war Fred became the Head of the Aerodynamics Department at the
Aeronautical Research Laboratories until his retirement in the 1960's.
He then worked as a consultant.

VALE

Footnote
I have always assumed that the classic lines of the He 70 inspired
Supermarine to produce the Spitfire. However, their Chief Aerodynamicist,
Beverly Shenstone, has always denied this connection. According to
Shenstone the original Supermarine design had a straight tapered wing
and the then Chief Designer, Mitchell, changed it to an elliptical shape
to accommodate the addition of outer machine guns.

Bev Shenstone later visited Australia when he was President of the Royal
Aeronautical Society and I was able to check this point with him
personally although I have never been completely convinced.