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Mailbag

Those Atomic Mustangs

Hi Rob, I was interested in “Six of the Best”

in this month’s magazine [Vol.25 No.4] as it

was mentioned they had seen pictures from

a source who had flown in there. I guess I

was the source, as we landed our Mooney

VH-MBO into a small area at the bomb side

that had been cleared for tents. It wasn’t

possible to land on the strip itself as there

were steel tank traps down its length.

The photos in the magazine must have

been taken at Emu after the Mustangs were

towed there as there were no fences further

south where the bomb pulverised the tower

it had been on, although the Submarine

Conning Tower nearby it did not seem dam-

aged, nor did the Mustangs other than the

fabric tail feathers - probably damaged by

sun, wind, and vandals of course. The first

picture is Emu to the north. After seeing the

Mustangs, I bought A68-119 VH-IVI. An ex-

cellent magazine. Cheers,

Langdon Badger, South Australia

ABOVE RIGHT: The Emu atomic test site when first

vistited by Lagdon Badger in his MooneyVH-MBO,

with A68-30 in the foreground.

ABOVE: The Mustangs as found by Langdon on

his original visit to the Emu.

RIGHT: Langdon Badger about to do his fisrt solo

in his CAC Mustang VH-IVI,formerly RAAF A68-119.

Dear Rob, It was very interesting to read

about the Emu Mustangs, “Six Of The

Best” as my father Geoffrey Marshall was

one of the RAAF pilots who flew the Mus-

tangs into Emu Creek. In his memoirs he

wrote the following:

“By the time I was posted from ARDU in

1951, the Long Range Weapons Establishment

was well advanced, and work both in the Unit-

ed Kingdom and Australia as extensive as if

in wartime. The early work at Woomera

mainly involved conventional flying like the

testing of high altitude improved bombs and

parachutes, but steadily various sorts of guid-

ed weapons arrived. Not all the equipment or

endeavour came from England, and Austral-

ian participation was highly praised, not only

in building hangars and runways, but also in

technical and design work, including the

great amount of instrumentation and analyti-

cal work. One of the important fields was the

testing of the means of delivery as well as the

actual testing of the extremely powerful nu-

clear weapons. Woomera had become known

as the Joint Project. My first interest in nu-

clear activity was an invitation to me in my

job as Director of Technical Support at Victo-

ria Barracks, Melbourne. The task was to fly

four Mustangs to Emu Creek, which is almost

in the dead centre of Australia. Experienced

pilots were required, as there was no runway

at the Creek and aircraft took off and landed

on the bed of a dried-up lake. The aircraft

were to be used as “target response” items.

They would be placed close to the point of

bomb explosion just to see how they were af-

fected. (The pilots were first removed!) This

testing to damage or destruction was one of

the widely used excuses for letting off the

new bombs.

I agreed to fly one of the aircraft for the

test, which took place in April 1953. We had

many over produced Mustangs, some brand

new and stored at Tocumwal. The other 3

blokes were Pete Parker, Lee Archer and

Ron Susans, all good fighter pilots. Our first

stop was to be Mallala and I assumed that

we would fly in formation but realised quite

soon that was not the case. I didn’t want to

thrash the engine so I always turned up last,

except the last leg from Woomera where I

arrived second. The lakebed was not very

big and I finished up only a few yards short

of the stunted tree growth. We only

stayed long enough for food - the flies

were pretty bad at Emu Creek - and

were taken back by Bristol Freighter to

Mallala. My aircraft was A68-7 and I

still have the magnetic compass which

I removed at the Creek.”

From accounts by Geoff, I believe

A68-7 had problems with the flaps. He

made a “hot” landing without flaps and

had to ground-loop the aircraft to avoid

the trees. I have attached a photo-copy

of the relevant page from Geoff’s log

book. The log book also records nu-

merous flights in A68-1001 and A68-1

when Geoff was Commanding Officer

at ARDU. Geoff passed away in 2002.

Yours sincerely, Rick Marshall, For-

rest, ACT

Geoff Marshall’s logbook entries show the Emu ferry flight entry and the diverse types he flew.

Ferrying the CAC Mustang A68-7