Società de Agostini e Caproni, also known as Caproni was an Italian aircraft manufacturer.
Giovanni Battista “Gianni” Caproni, an Italian aviation pioneer and aeronautical engineer, started the firm in 1908. From 1911, it was known as Società de Agostini e Caproni, and later Società Caproni e Comitti. Caproni was in charge of completing the first Italian-built airplane in 1911. Its main manufacturing facilities were in Taliedo, a peripheral district of Milan, close to Linate Airport, while the firm’s Caproni Vizzola division was based in Vizzola Ticino, close to Milan–Malpensa Airport. The Caproni Ca.1, Ca.6, and Ca.12 were among the first compact single-engine aircraft constructed by the company, and they became major milestones in the early development of Italian aviation. As a result, Caproni became one of the most prominent Allied aircraft manufacturers during World War I, designing and producing huge multi-engine long-range bombers like the three-engined Caproni Ca.32, Ca.33, Ca.36, and Ca.40. Not only the Italian military, but also the French, British, and American air forces, adopted these aircraft. Caproni’s bombers are widely recognized as among the most noteworthy examples of heavy aircraft of the period. Following the war’s end, the operational employment of Caproni bombers was said to have shaped Giulio Douhet’s strategic bombing ideas and was thus seen as a watershed moment in aviation history. Caproni had a busy period throughout the interwar years. While the end of World War I resulted in a sharp drop in demand for bombers, affecting orders for much of Caproni’s core product line, Caproni chose to focus the majority of its efforts on the development of civil aviation sector. As a result of the acquisition of several smaller Italian manufacturers, the corporation was reorganized into a big syndicate known as the Società Italiana Caproni, Milano, during this time. Caproni Bergamasca, Caproni Vizzola, Reggiane, and the engine maker Isotta Fraschini were the company’s primary subdivisions by the 1930s. Caproni’s aircraft activities were primarily focused on the development of bombers and light transport aircraft. The Caproni Ca.60 Transaereo, an experimental big flying boat built for the civil sector, was perhaps the most distinctive of Caproni’s aircraft. The idea of a huge multi-engined flying boat serving long-distance passenger services was deemed extreme at the time. Caproni, on the other hand, believed that such an aircraft could provide faster access to isolated places than ground or water transportation and that the investment required to build and manufacture such an aircraft would be less expensive than pursuing other options. Caproni filed a patent application for his concept in 1919. Caproni Ca.60, his huge seaplane design, was exceedingly unconventional, with eight engines and three sets of triple wings. Despite a persistent tendency to ascend, the aircraft took off for the first time on 12 February or 2 March 1921, proving to be both stable and manoeuvrable during its brief flight. However, when making its second flight on March 4, the single completed aircraft was lost. Giovanni Caproni and his wife, Timina Caproni, founded the Caproni Museum (Italian: Museo Caproni) in Taliedo in 1927. It is both Italy’s oldest aviation museum and the country’s oldest business museum. The Caproni Museum predates the Caproni firm by many years.
Fun Fact: In 2013 the Japanese animated historical drama film “The Wind Rises”, was released. The movie is written by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli. The Wind Rises is a fictionalised biographical film of Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982), designer of the Mitsubishi A5M fighter aircraft and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, used by the Empire of Japan during World War II. In the movie, the famous Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni is introduced as a reference person for the main character. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFBZgAZx7g
