Caproni Ca.309

The Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli was an Italian aircraft used in Libya and North Africa from 1937 to 1943, its nickname referring to a Libyan desert wind. Cesare Pallavicino designed it from the Ca.308 Borea transport to replace the obsolete IMAM Ro.1 biplane and to serve as a reconnaissance and ground-attack aircraft. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a piston engine on each wing. A Bulgarian-built variant, of which 24 were made, was known as the Kaproni-Bulgarski KB 6 or KB 309 Papagal. In Libya the type served early in the Second World War with the Auto-Saharan Company, with good operational results, and after the loss of the African colonies the surviving aircraft went back to Italy and flew as transports. The production version had two Alfa Romeo 115 engines of 291 kilowatts each and a crew of three.