Photo: Platinum Fighter Sales
For all their contributions to the automotive space, the history behind Italy's century-old aircraft industry is overlooked more often than not. If you ask us, that's a real shame. Because some of the most innovative, quirky, and downright ambitious airplanes to come out of the pioneer age of aviation came not from France or the U.S. but from Italy. But even among this crowd, the works of Giovanni Battista Caproni are especially curious. As a testament to this effect, Italy's oldest flightworthy aircraft is this 1933 Caproni Ca.100 trainer.
With a nickname like Caproncino (little Caproni) to throw around, this pipsqueak little twin-seater trainer was so many Italian pilots' introductory course to the realm of military aircraft. The type was manufactured under license by a plethora of different Italian companies once Caproni finished designing the prototypes. These include famous, recognizable names like Breda and Macchi that'd go on to form the backbone of the Italian Air Force during World War II. The Ca.100 was derived from a British airplane of all things, particularly the de Havilland DH.60 Moth, first flown in 1925.
Through exports to the Air Forces of Austria, Bulgaria, Peru, Portugal, and Spain, the Ca.100 proved to be a solid tandem-seat training aircraft, if not one that was prone to the occasional mechanical or structural snafus. But when they were working properly, the aircraft presented some respectable performance figures for the period. This even includes setting a world altitude record for seaplanes when a special variant fitted with water floats reached a height of 5,324 m (17,467 ft) back in 1931.
In its day, the Ca.100 could sport any number of different engines under its hood. Everything from British de Havilland Gypsy four-cylinder inline engines to the Fiat A.53 radial and even the Czechoslovak-built Walter NX 85 were employed on this Italian biplane. But in this particular application, this 1933 example sports an 8.6-liter Colombo S.63 inline four-cylinder engine jetting 130 horsepower and manufactured by that ever-present force in Italian engineering, Alfa Romeo. As of September 2023, this engine is just under 70 hours removed from a comprehensive restoration and mechanical overhaul.
The rest of the airframe is looking pretty spiffy, too. All the hand-assembled wood and canvas that overlays the nearly hollow fuselage needs to be assembled and finished by hand. No amount of AutoCAD software or 3D printing is going to help you when dealing with an airplane this old. But there's something eternally endearing about building an airplane the old-fashioned way. There's a sense you can see all the craftsmanship and hard work that went into every square inch of this airframe as it flies along. For the price of €240.000 ($258,859), this piece of Italian history can be all yours.
Through exports to the Air Forces of Austria, Bulgaria, Peru, Portugal, and Spain, the Ca.100 proved to be a solid tandem-seat training aircraft, if not one that was prone to the occasional mechanical or structural snafus. But when they were working properly, the aircraft presented some respectable performance figures for the period. This even includes setting a world altitude record for seaplanes when a special variant fitted with water floats reached a height of 5,324 m (17,467 ft) back in 1931.
In its day, the Ca.100 could sport any number of different engines under its hood. Everything from British de Havilland Gypsy four-cylinder inline engines to the Fiat A.53 radial and even the Czechoslovak-built Walter NX 85 were employed on this Italian biplane. But in this particular application, this 1933 example sports an 8.6-liter Colombo S.63 inline four-cylinder engine jetting 130 horsepower and manufactured by that ever-present force in Italian engineering, Alfa Romeo. As of September 2023, this engine is just under 70 hours removed from a comprehensive restoration and mechanical overhaul.
The rest of the airframe is looking pretty spiffy, too. All the hand-assembled wood and canvas that overlays the nearly hollow fuselage needs to be assembled and finished by hand. No amount of AutoCAD software or 3D printing is going to help you when dealing with an airplane this old. But there's something eternally endearing about building an airplane the old-fashioned way. There's a sense you can see all the craftsmanship and hard work that went into every square inch of this airframe as it flies along. For the price of €240.000 ($258,859), this piece of Italian history can be all yours.
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