{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox company | name = Tugan Aircraft | logo = | fate = Acquired | successor = Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation | foundation = 1933 | founder = Leo Turl, Frank Gannon | defunct = 1936 | location = Mascot, New South Wales, Australia | industry = Aerospace | key_people = | products = Aircraft | num_employees = | parent = | subsid = }}
'''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.
== History == The company was formed in 1933 by Leo Turl and Frank Gannon as '''Turl & Gannon'''.<ref name="M544">Meggs, p544</ref> Both were former employees of The General Aircraft Company Genairco,<ref>Meggs, p517</ref> which had gone out of business earlier that year after producing DH.60Xs and 9 of their own locally designed Genairco Biplane; 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.<ref name="M544"/> 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).<ref name="M544"/><ref>[http://www.gabr.net.au/biogs/ABE1006b.htm Guide to Australian Business Records - W. R. Carpenter Aerial Service] retrieved 10 October 2009.</ref> 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.<ref>Meggs p520</ref><ref>Meggs p525</ref><ref name="M545">Meggs p545</ref><ref>[http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austu/VH-URH.html Ed Coates Collection - Genairco VH-URH] retrieved 11 October 2009.</ref><ref>Historic Civil Aircraft Register of Australia - entries for VH-UNY and VH-URH</ref>
Charles Kingsford Smith approached the company to develop an improved version of the Codock twin-engine aircraft<ref name="M548">Meggs, p548</ref> that Lawrence Wackett had designed and built for him while working for the Cockatoo Island Docks & Engineering Company.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1934/1934%20-%200439.html ''Flight'' magazine, 3 May 1934, p439 (online archive version)] retrieved 15 October 2009</ref><ref>Meggs, p536</ref> 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.<ref name="M545"/> The name Gannet was suggested for the new aircraft by Kingsford Smith as a contraction of the names Gannon and Wackett.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%202284.html "FRANK GANNON", ''Flight'' magazine, 20 August 1954, p231 (online archive version)] retrieved 15 October 2009</ref>
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.<ref name="M545"/> 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.<ref name="M545"/>
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.<ref name="M545"/> 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.<ref>Meggs p545-46</ref>
== Aircraft == ;General Aircraft Company Genairco :one aircraft built using some parts from a crashed example; substantially modified compared to original design
;C3 Hawk :Four-seat single-engine design; none built
;LJW7 Gannet :six-passenger twin-engine airliner; eight built
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Bibliography == *{{cite book |last= Meggs|first= Keith Raymond|title= Australian-built Aircraft and the Industry Volume 1|year= 2009|publisher= Finger-Four Publishing|location= Seymour, Victoria|isbn=978-1-920892-77-7}} *{{cite book |last= Cookson|first= Bert|title= The Historic Civil Aircraft Register of Australia (pre War), G-AUAA to VH-UZZ|year= 1996|publisher= AustAirData|location= Toombul, Queensland (privately published)}}
Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Australia Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1933 Category:Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1936 Category:1933 establishments in Australia Category:1936 disestablishments in Australia