Wackett Widgeon II                          (c/n and serial unknown)

                           

                                  This image is from the Roy Maddon collection (via Jim Turner) and shows the one and only
                                  Widgeon Mk II at the RAAF base at Richmond in 1928.  This development was a follow on
                                  machine to earlier Mk I, which mysteriously (and unofficially) bore the spurious registration
                                  G-AEKB after the then Minister of  Defence, E.K. Bowden.    Jim Turner suggests the aircraft
                                  seen above was undergoing radial engine tests at the time.   The Widgeon II, whose design had
                                  been sponsored by the RAAF, appeared never to have carried a serial number. It crashed into
                                  Port Phillip Bay, Victoria in January 1930 and further development of this type was abandoned.