Caproni Ca.1

The Caproni Ca.1 was an Italian heavy bomber of the First World War era and the first heavy bomber designed by Gianni Caproni. It was a three-engine biplane of fabric-covered wooden construction with a crew of four in an open central nacelle, two pilots, a front gunner and a rear gunner-mechanic who stood on the central engine in a protective cage in front of the rear propeller, and it had tricycle landing gear. The first design was a twin-boom biplane with three 67 kilowatt Gnome rotary engines housed one behind the other in the central nacelle, known to Caproni as the Caproni 260 hp, and it flew in a slightly modified form in October 1914. Test flights showed the power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, so Caproni moved two engines to the fronts of the booms. The Ca.1 entered Italian Army service in the middle of 1915 and first saw action on 20 August 1915, attacking the Austrian air base at Aisovizza, and some survivors were rebuilt as airliners carrying up to six passengers.