The Caproni Vizzola Calif was a family of Italian
sailplane
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...
s, the first example flew in 1969, with production continuing into the 1970s and 1980s. Of typical sailplane configuration with
T-tail
A T-tail is an empennage wikt:configuration, configuration in which the tailplane of an aircraft is mounted to the top of the vertical stabilizer, fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs fr ...
s, they featured distinctive wings with centre sections of constant
chord and trapezoidal outer panels. The forward
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...
was constructed of
fibreglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...
over an alloy frame, while the rear fuselage, wings, and
empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...
were metal-covered.
The most significant member of the family, and the only one produced in quantity (around 150 by the early 1980s) was the A-21S, a two-seat version that accommodated the pilot and passenger side by side. At one time this aircraft concurrently held four world records for two-seat sailplanes, including:
* the women's closed-circuit speed record set by
Adele Orsi and
Franca Bellengeri in August 1974
* straight distance of 970.4 km by
Ingo Renner and Hilmer Geissler in Australia in 1975
Variants
*A-10 (one built)
*A-12 (two built)
*A-14 (one built)
*A-15 (one built)
*A-20
**A-20S - two-seat version of A-20
*A-21 - two-seat development of A-14
**A-21S - refined production version of A-21
**A-21SJ - jet-powered version of A-21 using either a thrust engine, having a ceiling. A trailing edge flap-airbrake is unique to this model. Marketed in America by AVIA America Corporation.
Specifications (A-21S)
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
tschager-gold.it
{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation
Vizzola Calif
1960s Italian sailplanes
Glider aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1969
T-tail aircraft
Shoulder-wing aircraft