Caproni Ca.87

The Caproni Ca.87 was an Italian long-distance aircraft built in the 1920s for a planned transatlantic flight. Polish Americans organised the idea of a Polish crossing of the Atlantic and raised $36,000, and the Polish government chose its crew, Captain Adam Kowalczyk and Lieutenant Klisz. Gianni Caproni personally handed over a Ca.73ter night bomber, on which the record-attempt aircraft was built, and shared the costs for advertising reasons; it was altered for a possible landing on water and christened Polonia. It first flew on 15 June 1929 and went to Baldonnel in Ireland, but its new Isotta Fraschini Asso engines worked intermittently and the attempt was cancelled after news of another Polish pilot's crash. It went back to Caproni and was converted into a bomber.