Caproni Ca.1 (1914)

This article is about the World War I bomber. For the pioneering biplane of the same designation, see Caproni Ca.1 (1910).

Ca.1 (1914)
Role	heavy day bomber
National origin	Italy
First flight	late 1914
Number built	162

The Caproni Ca.1 was an Italian heavy bomber of the World War I era.

Development and design

The Ca.1 was a three-engine biplane of fabric covered wooden construction. It had 4 crew members in an open central nacelle: two pilots, a front gunner, and rear gunner-mechanic, who manned upper machine guns, standing upon the central engine in a protective cage, just in front of the rear propeller. The Ca.1 had a tricycle landing gear.

Italy and Russia were among the first countries to start developing a heavy bomber capability before World War I. The first heavy bomber, designed by Gianni Caproni was a twin-boom biplane, featuring a layout that included three 67 kW (80 hp) Gnome rotary engines housed one behind the other in a central nacelle, the rearmost driving a pusher propeller, and the other two driving tractor propellers mounted on the fronts of the two booms. Referred to by Caproni as the Caproni 260 hp and retrospectively, after the war, as the Ca.30), this design flew in a slightly modified form (later called the Ca.31) in October 1914.

Test flights revealed the power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable. Caproni altered the aircraft, retaining the pusher engine in its original location and moving the other two engines to the front of the booms, directly driving the propellers. With more powerful inline engines, the air arm of the Italian Army became interested in purchasing the Caproni 300 hp (later known as the Ca.32), which they designated the Ca.1. A total of 166 aircraft were delivered between August 1915 and December 1916.

Some Ca.1s survived the war to be rebuilt as airliners, able to carry up to six passengers. This conversion became known as the Ca.56 in Caproni's post-war naming scheme.

There is some variation in published sources over early Caproni designations. The confusion stems, in part, from three separate schemes used to designate these aircraft - Caproni's in-house designations of the time, those used by the Italian Army, and designations created after the war by Caproni to refer to past designs.

Operational history

The Ca.1 entered service with the Italian Army in the middle of 1915 and first saw action on August 20, 1915, attacking the Austrian air base at Aisovizza. 15 bomber squadrons (1-15 Squadriglia) were eventually equipped with Ca.1, Ca.2, and Ca.3 bombers, mostly bombing targets in Austria-Hungary. The 12th squadron operated in Libya. In 1918 three squadrons (3, 14 and 15) operated in France.

Operators

Kingdom of Italy

• Corpo Aeronautico Militare

Specifications

Data from

General characteristics

• Crew: 4
• Length: 11.05 m (36 ft 3 in)
• Wingspan: 22.74 m (74 ft 7 in)
• Height: 3.70 m (12 ft 2 in)
• Wing area: 95.6 m² (1,029 ft²)
• Empty weight: 3,302 kg (7,264 lb)
• Gross weight: 4,000 kg (8,800 lb)
• Powerplant: 3 × Fiat A.10, 75 kW (100 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 120 km/h (75 mph)
• Range: 550 km (344 miles)
• Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,120 ft)

Armament

• 2 × 6.5 mm FIAT-Revelli machine guns
• Bombs mounted under the hull

See also

• Push-pull configuration

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of Entente Powers in WWI
• List of bomber aircraft

External links

• Aerei Italiani (Italian)