Departures of note

Friedrich Wilhelm 'Fred' David, born in Vienna in 1900, became the most significant aircraft designer for the Australian aircraft industry during World War Two. Arriving in Australia as a Jewish refugee in 1939, he was technically an enemy alien and was interned by immigration officials, required to report weekly to the local police. Despite this, his expertise was sought after, as he had previously worked for Heinkel in pre-Nazi Germany and for Mitsubishi and Aichi Kokuki in Japan, where his contributions led to the Mitsubishi A5M Claude fighter and the Aichi D3A Type 99 Val dive-bomber.

David's most famous design was the CAC Boomerang, used by the Royal Australian Air Force in the Pacific War. His most technically advanced aircraft, the CAC CA-15 Kangaroo piston fighter, was commissioned in early 1943 to overcome the Boomerang's limitations, but the prototype did not fly until March 1946. Although it exceeded the maximum speed and climb rate of the Spitfire and Mustang, it was obsolete by the dawn of the jet age.

After the war, David worked for the Australian government's research arm, becoming a specialist in aerodynamics. He eventually led the Ikara missile project, designing an anti-submarine missile used by the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal Navy, the Chilean Navy, and the Brazilian Navy. He died in Melbourne in 1992 at the age of 92.