Taurus engines, aircraft components and the associated equipment were shipped out to be joined in October 1939, by the eighth production Beaufort "L4448". With the outbreak of war, the possibility that supplies of the Taurus engines could be disrupted or halted was considered, even before the British government placed an embargo on exporting war materials with the Blitzkrieg on France, the Netherlands and Belgium in May 1940. It was proposed that a change of powerplant could be made to the Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp, which was already in use on RAAF Lockheed Hudsons. Orders for the engine were placed and a factory was set up at Lidcombe, New South Wales and run by General Motors-Holden Ltd. The locally built engines were coded S3C4-G, while those imported from America were coded S1C3-4. Three-bladed Curtiss-Electric propellers were fitted to Beaufort Mks V, VI, VIII and IX while Beaufort Mks VA and VIII used Hamilton Standard propellers. In early 1941, "L4448" was converted as a trials aircraft and the combination was considered a success. The first Australian-assembled Beaufort "A9-1" flew on 5 May 1941 with the first Australian-built aircraft "A9-7" coming off the production line in August. In total 700 Australian Beauforts were manufactured in six series (see variants).