The Caproni Ca.2 was an Italian
heavy bomber
Heavy bombers are bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually Aerial bomb, bombs) and longest range (aeronautics), range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy ...
of the
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
era.
Development
The Ca.2 was a minor development of the
Caproni Ca.1 twin-boom bomber of 1914. It had become evident early in the Ca.1's service life that the design could benefit from more power. Caproni therefore replaced the central,
pusher engine of the aircraft with a more powerful one. Caproni referred to this as the Caproni 350 hp at the time, and the Italian Army dubbed it the Ca.2. No separate number seems to have been allocated to it in Caproni's postwar redesignation scheme.
Only nine aircraft were built, supplied to the Italian Army alongside deliveries of Ca.1s between August
1915
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
*January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".
*January 1
* ...
and December
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
.
The benefits of increased power encouraged Caproni to continue in this direction, leading to the definitive
Caproni Ca.3
The Caproni Ca.3 is an Italian heavy bomber of World War I and the postwar era. It was the most produced version of the series of aircraft that began with the 1914 Caproni Ca.1 and continued until the more powerful 1917 Caproni Ca.5 variant.
...
.
Description
The Caproni Ca.2 was a trimotor
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
with an engine mounted on the rear of the central nacelle, and two others mounted on the front of twin booms, which held the tail. It was largely of wooden construction, covered with fabric. The crew of four were in an open central nacelle (front gunner, two pilots and rear gunner-mechanic). The rear gunner manned upper
machine guns, standing over the central engine in a protective "cage," just in front of its propeller. It was fitted with
tricycle landing gear
Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...
.
Armament consisted of two to four Revelli 6.5 mm or 7.7 mm
machine guns, one on a front ring mount and one, two or sometimes even three on an upper ring mount. Bombs were suspended under the central nacelle.
Operators
;
*
Corpo Aeronautico Militare
The Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aviation Corps) was formed as part of the Regio Esercito (Royal Army) on 7 January 1915, incorporating the Aviators Flights Battalion (airplanes), the Specialists Battalion (airships) and the Ballon ...
Specifications (Ca.2)
See also
References
Aerei Italiani(Italian)
{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation
Ca.002
1910s Italian bomber aircraft
Three-engined push-pull aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1915
Aircraft with fixed tricycle landing gear
Three-engined piston aircraft
pl:Caproni Ca.3