Caproni Ca.4

The Caproni Ca.4 was an Italian heavy bomber of the First World War, designed by Gianni Caproni as a much bigger aircraft after the successful Ca.3. It kept the unusual twin-boom layout, with one pusher engine at the rear of a central nacelle and two tractor engines in front of the booms, but was a three-engine triplane of wooden, fabric-covered construction. The Italian Army accepted it as the Ca.4, though it was built in several variants that Caproni later redesignated Ca.40 to Ca.43, Ca.48, Ca.51, Ca.52, Ca.58 and Ca.59, including a 23-passenger airliner, the Ca.48. Ca.4s were tested in 1917 and began operations in 1918, attacking targets in Austria-Hungary, and with Liberty engines the bomber carried one of the largest bomb loads of its era.