Caproni ca.135 – Wikipedia

The Caproni ca.135 It was a medium -si -biimotor bomber -wing bomber built by the Italian Aeronautical Construction Company of Bergamo (CAB) (Caproni Group) of Ponte San Pietro, Bergamo in the second half of the 1930s and mainly employed by the Hungarian Air Force during the Second World War.

In 1934 the Ministry of Air Force issued a specific for the supply of a new medium -sided terrestrial bomber. The CRA CANT CADA participated in the competition notice (Reunited construction sites of the Adriatic – Trieste shipyard) with Cant Z.1011, the Rinaldo Piaggio company with Piaggio P.32 and Caproni, with a project designed by Eng.Cesare Pallavicino and developed by the CAB ASSOCIATED CAB to which the CA.135 designation was assigned, identification for the home Mother (group 100 and not 300 as assigned to the CAB production).

He made his first flight on April 1, 1936, but due to the low power of the engines, two 12 cylinders to V Isolde Fraschini Asso XI RC.40 coupled with Bipala Wooden Road propellers, did not arouse particular interest by the commission of the Direction Air Force in charge of evaluating the aircraft. Subsequently it was thus equipped with a pair of radials Piaggio p.xi rc.40 and with triple propellers.

This aircraft never met a great success, in fact it was built only in about thirty specimens assigned in January 1938 to the 34th group of the 11th flock lined up in Ferrara and immediately after turning to Hungary due to the choice by the Air Force Royal of Use the Caproni ca.313.

Ca.135 was a traditional appearance aircraft and made in mixed technique. The fuselage was built with a structure of steel tubes with the moonbedeno welded covered in the front by danged panels and in the rear in canvas. Posteriorly, it continued in a tail characterized by the biderial surge also in wood. The low wing, made of wood, was mounted overwhelmed on the fuselage and hinged to facilitate its disassembly in case of transport. The landing trolley was tricycle, semi -revived before, with the legs of strength that partially portrayed in the engine gondolas, integrated posteriorly by a support wheel.

Weaponry [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The defensive armament consisted of a back machine gun, a retrack ventral and a front.
The offensive one consisted of a load of bombs of various types up to a maximum of 1 600 kg.

The first 32 specimens made were delivered, in 1938 to the 1st Stormo B.T. (Terrestrial bombing), however, remaining in flight only for a short time. Due to the problems in the flight conduct, the radiation was requested followed by the provision for the replacement of the original Isolde FRASHINI ASSO XI engines with the Piaggio P.xi and which assumed the APPAIGNATION CA.135 Mod. In 1939 6 modified specimens came sent to the Balearic islands in Spain to participate in the civil war but only 2 reached it and the traces were lost. Meanwhile, in the peninsula I Caproni 135 of 1 Stormo B.T. They were almost all radiated because they are unreliable and dangerous.
(modified). ^[3]

The model was more successful abroad. Peru ordered six specimens equipped with Isotta Fraschini engines without however using them operationally during the Ecuadorian -Peruvian war of 1941. Hungary was the greatest contractor with the supply order for 36 appointed specimens Ca.135bis U, equipped with Piaggio engines , which were opened by the Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő on the eastern front between 1941 and 1942 in the war operations alongside the powers of the axis.
When Hungary declared war on the Soviet Union, in June 1941, the Ca.135 equipped group 3./iii of the third Stormo Bombardieri, based on Debracen. The Italian bombers came into action on August 11, when you are Caproni, under the command of Lieutenant Maggiore Szakonyi, took off to bomb a 2 km bridge on the Bug river, in the city of Nikolayev, on the Black Sea. One of the Ca.135 had to immediately Returning to the base, for engine problems, but the other five, escorted by Fiat C.R.42 and Reggiane Re.2000 Hungarians, continued to fly to the east. Szakonyi’s Caproni was hit by Antiatea and remained with a single working engine, but the training commander continued towards the goal.
Another of the Hungarian drivers, Captain Eszenyi, hit and destroyed the bridge, while Szakonyi bombed the Nikolayev station. On the return route, the Caproni were intercepted by Soviet hunting Polykarpov I-16. The Fiat and the escort Hungarian Reggiane raised five I-16, while the approx. The destruction of the bridge facilitated the conquest of the city by the eleventh German army, on August 16, and the commander of the Luftflotte 4, Colonel General Lohr, wanted to personally decorate the Hungarian crews, in Sutyska. ^[4] This first unit was withdrawn from the eastern front, with the entire Hungarian aerial component, in September 1941, and allow the crews to restore and submit maintenance planes. In 1942, Miklós Horthy, the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, under pressing German requests, sent the second Hungarian army to the Soviet front, deployed on the Don, between April and June 1942. To provide tactical support and carry out reconnaissance missions , the second Hungarian aerial brigade was sent. The only bombing component of the unit was the Stormo 4/1, equipped with 17 ca.135. ^[5]

Because of their progressive deterioration, however, the Caproni were soon replaced with equal role of German production such as the Junkers Ju 88. ^[3]

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  Two Caproni ca.155 in Alghero in 1938

Italy

Peru

Hungary

• Bill Gunston, Bombardieri of the Second World War , Milan, Editoriale Fabbri group, 1981.
• His Werner Neulen, In the skies of Europe – Air Forces allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945 , Ramsbury, Marlborough, The Crowood Press, 2000, ISBN 1-86126-799-1.
• Massimo Civoli, Aeroplani – Royal Air Force Air Force Military 1923-2003 , CavallerMaggiore, Gribaudo, 2002, p. 120, ISBN 88-8058-299-2.