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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0904.PDF
'342 FLIGHT. APRIL 8, 1937. In the Caproni works museum. In the background is one of the big triplane bombers of the Great War, and a smaller triplane is seen on the right. bomber version of the S.79, and also the twin-bomber Fiat B.K.20. But there were no specimens of either type at Montecelio. I saw, however, suffi cient types to show that the practical aerodynamics of Ialian aviaton is of first-class order. * * * The Ministero dell' Aeronautica made arrangements for me to visit the Caproni factory on my way back to London. I have already noted that there was no direct passenger air ser vice between Rome and London. There was nothing to be gained (in fact, time would have been lost) by flying from Rome to Milan. So I spent an uncomfortable night in a railway sleeper. Not that the sleeping coach was uncomfortable. It was as good as any of them ever are. But I | hate travelling by train and I loathe sleepers. I am always conscious that I am travelling when I sleep in a train. It was a misty morning when the train pulled into Milan Station, but after I had bathed, shaved and breakfasted the sun began to strike through the mist. I took a taxi to the works on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of meeting Signor Caproni himself, for he had gone abroad that morning. 1 was accompanied through the administration offices and the drawing offices by an official of the company. Of considerable size, they lie on either side of a long corridor. Thence we passed out into the open. The next building we entered was the machine shop. There metal parts were being made for the current aircraft in production. As one machine shop looks very much like another, and there was no particular detail in which I was specially interested, we passed through this section of the Caproni factory quickly. Thereafter we visited the many different departments in the works. I will not detail each one, but dwell mainly on general impressions. In the stock room for materials ample stores were available to meet any emergency that might arise in the speeding-up of production. In the erec tion shop, a large building free from obstructions, three- types of aircraft were in the preliminary stages of assembly. Among them were some forty fuselages of a two-seater reconnaissance aircraft—a metal type, fabric-covered, fitted with a 650 h.p. liquid-cooled, twelve-cylinder Fiat engine The crew of two are housed within an enclosed cockpit, very similar to that on the Fairey Battle. The under carriage is fixed, for the single-bay biplane construction does not readily offer opportunity for retraction. A thoroughly workmanlike standard aircraft, it is, I believe, being built in series in a large number of factories. I should say that pel formance, while not outstanding, is of sufficient merit to meet the require ments of all ordinary general recon naissance work. It should make a very useful type of aircraft for co operation with Italy's large army The fuselage is built up of welded steel tubing, and seems a neat job.
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