Caproni Ca.71

The Caproni Ca.71, originally the Ca.70L, was a two-seat biplane night fighter produced in Italy in 1927 and derived from the Ca.70 of 1925. Undaunted by the lack of interest the Regia Aeronautica had shown in the Ca.70 after its official tests in 1926, the Caproni company designed this derivative. Like the Ca.70 it was designed for good low-speed handling and for good visibility from both cockpits, with unequal-span wings, tailskid landing gear and an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber on the main legs. It differed in its engine installation, a pusher configuration replacing the tractor-mounted Bristol Jupiter, and it was designed to take engines of 298 to 373 kilowatts. The lone Ca.71 built had a 298 kilowatt Lorraine-Dietrich V-12 engine and was slightly heavier than the Ca.70. It first flew in 1927, but the Regia Aeronautica had no more interest in it than in the Ca.70 and no further examples were built.