Caproni Ca.20

The Caproni Ca.20 was an early monoplane fighter developed by Giovanni Battista Caproni in 1914. It descended from the Ca.18 observation monoplane, itself developed from 1913 out of the earlier Ca.8 and Ca.16, but used a more powerful Rhone engine under an unusual rounded nose cover for the wooden propeller, pierced to cool the engine, which helped speed and manoeuvrability. A Lewis machine gun was mounted above the pilot over the propeller disc, since synchronizing gear had not yet appeared. Only one was built because the Italian government preferred bombers. The prototype sat in a barn on Caproni's property for 85 years before the Museum of Flight in Seattle bought it in 1999, and it keeps all its original parts apart from the tyres.