100 years ago: flying mammoth falls
Exactly 100 years ago, on 4 March 1921, a remarkable aircraft first rose 20 m above Lake Maggiore in Ticino, Switzerland, only to crash shortly thereafter.
With his Ca.60 Transaero, whose prototype was irretrievably lost after the second flight, Italian aviation pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni (1886-1957) planned to revolutionise long-haul flight.
Equipped with eight 400 hp engines and three triplane wings, the aircraft was designed to carry "100 passengers or 8,000 kg of cargo or eight torpedoes and eight bombs," according to a technical sketch.
However, parts of the 22.6 m long and 9.15 m high aircraft with a wingspan of up to 30.5 m and a wing area of 750 sqm were salvaged and can be seen today - or once Covid-19 measures are lifted - in a museum in Trento. (ah)