Caproni Ca.70

The Caproni Ca.70 was a two-seat night fighter and ground attack biplane produced in Italy in 1925, and the only Italian aircraft designed from the outset as a night fighter. Caproni designed it for good low-speed handling and for good visibility from both cockpits, with no structure blocking either crewman view. It had unequal-span wings and tailskid landing gear whose main legs carried an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber that let the wheels travel forward in their linkage while taxiing. A 313 kilowatt Bristol Jupiter radial engine gave a top speed of 205 kilometres per hour, and armament was two fixed forward-firing Vickers machine guns and a flexible Lewis gun on a Scarff ring in the rear cockpit. It first flew in 1925 and was tested by the Regia Aeronautica in 1926, which had little interest in a two-seat night fighter, so no more were built.