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Caproni AP.1

1936 GOLDEN AGE WORLD WAR 2

History

A pair of Circa 301 prototypes served as the basis for a new Italian attack aircraft. The original design featured a low-positioned monoplane wing configuration, fixed landing gear legs, and a single-seat cockpit in the front of the fuselage. A radial piston engine is mounted at the very front of the design. From the outset, the Ca.301 was designed as a fighter jet and proved to be a reasonable design attempt, but was later modified to include a second crew and provide bombs in a fighter-bomber role. The structure is metal and wood and incorporates modern features such as a streamlined shape, three-bladed propellers and low monoplane wings, while retaining several older ones, including the use of an open-air cockpit and fixed landing gear.

At this point, military aviation is one step closer to an all-metal aircraft, and the Circa 301 design is somewhat of an "intermediate solution." The first of two two-seater prototypes was airborne on April 27, 1934, before entering the evaluation phase. The model entered service with the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) - with around 36 production forms in the first order - the C.305 officially entered service in 1936.

Caproni AP. 1 Piloted by two people, with a pilot in the front cockpit and an observer in the rear cockpit. The aircraft has a fuselage length of 30 feet 8 inches, a wingspan of 42 feet 8 inches, and a height of 9 feet 10 inches. Power comes from a single Alfa Romeo-branded 126 RC. 780 hp 34 series radial piston engine.

This gives the plane a top speed of 216 mph, a range of 935 miles and a service ceiling of about 21,300 feet. Armament is disjointed, consisting of a pair of 7.7mm Breda SAFAT machine guns (mounted on the front wings) and a 12.7mm machine gun (trainable in the rear cockpit).

Can carry up to 1,100 pounds of external supplies, mostly focused on conventionally dropped bombs.

Regia Aeronautica was so satisfied with the early service that they were able to secure the procurement of a second batch of aircraft, the Ca. 307. However, these were modified according to some of Regia Aeronautica's requirements, which included the installation of more powerful engines for improved performance . Caproni AP.

1 eventually formed four flying groups, a total of eight squadrons. The South American countries Paraguay and El Salvador also use this type to some extent in their respective air forces, but none have more of them than Air Regia. Those sold to Paraguay were designated "Ca. 308" by Caproni.

Caproni AP was formed in Italy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in the Iberian Peninsula between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Tied for first place with German mounts in some numbers. The Germans, in particular, used the battlefield as a harbinger of an impending global war, in which Italy would soon be involved.

Since the early 1930s, however, the battlefield has grown so rapidly that the Associated Press. 1 was quickly surpassed by the various enemy types it faced in the Spanish conflict (the fate many Italian aircraft faced in WWII).

Her old-school New World approach to design also makes her a poor shooting platform in air-to-air duels. Its value lies more in its power at throwing bombs, and even then the mount has proven to be limited. Hence the battle history of AP.

1 was very short and disappointing, and ended up leaving only pages of military aviation history and nothing more.

Some 86 AP. 1 Possibly manufactured by Caproni.