The unlikely history of the Whitney Boomerang

Queensland tradesmen Steve Wilson and Gary Dean may just be the unlikeliest ever contributors to the proud history of aviation in Australia.
Somehow, against huge odds and on shoestring funding, they managed to develop a new plane entirely from scratch and open a new market for Australia.
A welder by trade, Steve Wilson had dreamt of making and flying planes since before his teenage years.
He became interested in blacksmithing and started a small business, where Gary Dean joined him as a business partner and soon discovered his passion for aircraft.
Mr Wilson had plans for a simplified version of the Spitfire that could be used as a training aircraft.
The designer they approached was Bill Whitney, a famous name in the Australian aviation industry.
Mr Wilson recalls that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) did not know what to think when they first encountered the entrepreneurs.
"In the early days, the general consensus of opinion was that we weren't going to last very long."
They needed $1 million to certify the plane designs, and found their first investors in Mr Dean's daughter and son-in-law.
Mr Dean says the project started out as a social club in the evenings, with people who worked on the plane getting shares in lieu of wages.
It took three years before the first prototype was ready to fly, and even then, Australians were not immediately interested in buying the new product.
But a trip to India ended with 10 contracts signed - worth $2 million.
Soon afterwards they built a prototype for flight-testing which proved compliance, and were ready to produce an aircraft that was viable for commercial sale.
Their first test flight in August this year was a success, and the pair launched the 'Whitney Boomerang' in September.
01/10/07 ABC Online, Australia

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, New Oct 2007