Caproni Ca.310

The Caproni Ca.310 Libeccio, Italian for southwest wind, was an Italian twin-engine monoplane reconnaissance aircraft used in the Second World War. Derived from the similar Ca.309, it made its combat debut in the Spanish Civil War and took part in the early phases of the war in Libya, and some served in attack groups as a temporary replacement for the unsatisfactory Breda Ba.65. It was a low-wing monoplane reconnaissance bomber, essentially the semi-military Ca.309 with retractable landing gear and uprated engines, with a welded steel-tube fuselage covered with light alloy panels and fabric and a manually operated dorsal turret. Its performance fell short of what Caproni had hoped, disappointing the Norwegian and Hungarian customers who received export models in 1938. The last Ca.310 was retired by the Italian Air Force in 1948, and one Norwegian example is displayed at the Sola Aviation Museum.