Caproni Ca.161

The Caproni Ca.161 was an aircraft built in Italy in 1936 in an attempt to set a new world altitude record. It was a conventional biplane with two-bay staggered wings of equal span, based on the Ca.113 design, and the pilot, in a pressure suit, sat in an open cockpit. On 8 May 1937 Lieutenant Colonel Mario Pezzi broke the world altitude record in it with a flight to 15,655 metres. The following year Pezzi broke the record again in the more powerful Ca.161bis, reaching 17,083 metres on 22 October 1938. That height was surpassed for piston-powered crewed aeroplanes in general in 1995, but as of 2024 it still stood for piston-powered biplanes and for crewed single-engine piston aircraft. A float-equipped Ca.161 Idro later set a record for floatplanes on 25 September 1939, flown by Nicola di Mauro. The Ca.161bis weighed 1,205 kilograms empty and carried a 560 kilowatt radial engine.