By the outbreak of the Second World War, the RAAF had received a total of six Wirraways. Early on, it became clear that CAC's rate of manufacture of the airframes outstripped Australian capacity to produce the Wasp engines to power the type. During 1940, having observed an excess of Australian capacity, Britain issued an offer to procure any Wirraway airframes that could be produced that had not already been allocated to fulfil RAAF orders, intending to fit US-built Wasp engines to power them. This led to the placing of an initial British order for 245 aircraft, the last of which was to be delivered before the end of 1942. During October 1940, this order was expanded to cover 500 aircraft, 300 of which being scheduled for delivery during 1943. While these orders were ultimately unmet due to the implementation of the extensive American-led Lend-Lease arrangement, the British government did finance the procurement of aircraft for Australian use within the Empire Air Training Scheme.