Caproni Ca.97

Overview

The Caproni Ca.97 was a utility monoplane aircraft designed and produced by the Italian aircraft manufacturer Caproni. It had a range of powerplant arrangements, the aircraft could be flown with many as three radial engines, however, many were built with only the nose engine present or with only the two nacelle-mounted engines. The Ca.97 was originally designed during the latter half of the 1920s as a high-wing braced trimotor monoplane of conventional configuration with one engine mounted on the nose and the other two carried on strut-mounted nacelles at the fuselage sides. It was adopted by both civilian and military operators, and thus saw a diverse range of uses from utility transport to limited use as an airliner. The Regia Aeronautica routinely used the Ca.97 to conduct colonial policing in North Africa.