Caproni Ca.73

The Caproni Ca.73 was an inverted sesquiplane designed and produced by the Italian manufacturer Caproni, first flown in 1925 as an airliner able to carry up to ten passengers. Its fuselage sat wholly below the lower wing, an arrangement thought less prone to landing accidents, and two Isotta Fraschini Asso 500 engines of 373 kilowatts each were mounted back to back in a common nacelle on struts above the fuselage. When the newly independent Regia Aeronautica sought a more capable light bomber to replace its First World War inventory, the Ca.73 was adapted with gunner positions in the nose, dorsally and ventrally and with bomb racks on the fuselage sides. By 1931 it and the improved Ca.74 made up most of the Regia Aeronautica night bombers, and it stayed in front line service until 1934.