The Largest Biplane Ever Flown | Caproni Ca.90 [Aircraft Overview #23] 

F.A.Q Section :D Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studios (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips, but right now they are outside my budget :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible. Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)

Aircraft design back then was The Wild West. Amazing the many paths designers took, some that from our perspective look completely insane but at the time were the cutting edge of innovation. You certainly can't fault them for not trying everything.

We have a lot to thank Myazaki for and one of them is bringing Caproni to the world's attention.

Only just watched The Wind Rises - what a coincidence! My daughter glanced at the video and said "that looks like that plane in the film", and then she saw the designer and cried out "that's him! That's him!" (he appears in several dream sequences in the film). A very strange moment! The film is very worth watching - as are all films from that studio. This one isn't actually my favourite (although still very good), but if you're more into planes than animé you might disagree with me! If memory serves it was the studio's most successful film and was nominated for an Oscar.

Since I was a kid I've always loved Caproni's aeronautical industries, I've been to their museum multiple times in wich it's stored the only remains of a reggiane 2005.

As the owner and pilot of one of the few remaining Caproni designs - the A21S ‘Calif’ - I really appreciate any documentation about the history of this company’s planes.

Wow, what a beast. Interesting fuel layout, all those tanks with a heap right at the extreme nose may have needed careful management to keep trim in line. Plus that poor nose gunner, basically sitting on a veritable warehouse of very flammable liquid, while operating a gun!

I had no idea aircraft engines in the nineteen twenty’s could produce 1,000hp. That’s very impressive.

The Level of Craziness Rising

The irony is that it is planes like this that are thought to have inspired Mussolini to overestimate the potential of Italian military technology, especially the aircraft. The outstanding ability of some Italian engineers to push the bounds of Human potential was indeed impressive, but Italy always seemed to have a distinct shortage of entrepreneurs and engineers with an equal talent for mass-production. Thus, the marvels so often failed to be made in numbers of consequence. Thankfully, there are enough amateurs with the passion to remember these marvels for us, such as this channel and Studio Ghibli, giving a chance for them to fly again if only in our imaginations.

I had absolutely no idea that this aircraft existed. Fantastic video Rex! Great job :D

I can only imagine the effect this had on people seeing it for the first time. It must be like us seeing a NASA launch ! Just WOW

You have to admire the Italians as designers and engineers.

That is one impressive aeroplane, especially when you see the men standing beside it.

Thanks for bring this back in attention. Caproni made great but special designs in it's time . Remember it was just 25 years before this they found out how to fly.

Mr Caproni had a brain, I can just imagine the immense challenges he faced.

Really love these obscure early planes, the engineering behind them is super interesting and they just look cool.

2000km range was phenomenal. Thanks for sharing!

+1 for "The Wind Rises" - perhaps my favorite aviation movie in the category of "few have ever heard of." I do wonder about the rationale for two-bladed props for the tractor engines and four-bladed for the pushers. Maybe four up front disrupted the airflow over the rear engine/props too much?

now this, this is the content I subscribed for and this is an amazing video, thanks so much for making it Rex

"Mostly forgotten by history". Yeah, that's why I watch your channel, and many, many thanks for it.

Caproni seems to have designed aircraft perfect for films by Studio Ghibli I am thing of The Wind Rises and the panes from Porco Rosso seemed to be his style of designs

Super work and attention to detail - that is a monster of a biplane! Wow...

Just found the channel the other day and have been binging the videos. Keep up the great work!

Great work Sir thank you

Keep pushing out great content, i love watching it and learning so much from you, the BV 238 is a very interesting aircraft, im sure its on your list but if it isnt please put it on there, thank you

When you see the name Caproni you know you are in for an awesome ride 😅😍

Thank you for this fascinating story! Good job!

Is there any record of what happened to it? Did rot in a field? Was it disassembled for parts/scrap? Did it crash somewhere? Did it just disappear & the mystery still remains of what happened to the world's largest biplane?

Brilliant plane. I love your interwar stuff, Rex. Topnotch.

The algorithm has blessed you.

I love your content Rex!

A Great Little Video... Thanks for Sharing. Sad that so many Brilliant Designs Never Made it to Production

Thank you, im interested into old planes alot for years, but i never heard about this

Between this and that nine-winged flying strip mall they came up with, I'm starting to wonder if somebody at Caproni accidentally used the wrong measurement units and planes went into production before anyone picked up on the mistake. 😉

Very good video of an aircraft that I had never heard of.

I keep looking at the people in the pics, trying to wrap my mind around the scale of that thing. Awesome work.

Incredible, if unfortunate, aircraft. And it worked! Nice vid.

Very interesting - thank you 👍.

Hi Rex, got to say this is a great channel. Watched 2 vids a while back & subscribed

Great story great images

Thank you

Great video. So informative. You've just gained yourself another subscriber 😉

Food for thought - Giovanni Battista Caproni died on October 27, 1957. In his life time he'd seen the advent of powered flight and its progress from the Wright flyer through his own bi-planes to the jet age. Had he lived another 2 months he'd have been alive for the first flight of the Boeing 707 on December 20, 1957... Amazing how fast technology moved.

You look at the thumbnail for this video and a tiny portion of your brain doubts the veracity of what you’re staring at. You wonder IF it’s been photoshopped (even though you KNOW Rex’s Hangar would never stoop so low). Then you watch the spiffingly excellent video, slack jawed, mouth gaping. It’s real. It’s all real…!!! I’ve been an aviation buff all my life, but I heard very little about Caproni. Thank you Rex, for adding more knowledge to a person who thought he’d seen it all - your hard work and excellent detailed productions are highly appreciated.

Very interesting.....great pictures

Can't imagine what a shock-and-awe impression this made in it's day!! It's impressive even today!!

I love how you now have several views covering absolute behoths of planes

Very nice ! Ca.90... a "could have been"... that's life !

What a whopper - I mean I like my Gotha and HP in Rise of Flight but that thing just makes them look like trainer aircraft! Nice video as always sir.

Gorgeous thing

Amazing airplane!

The wheels and tires alone are amazing

G'day, Yay Team ! Congratulations mate, I started reading Aeroplane (Monthly) magazine in 1973, the Newsagent puts it aside for me, still... ; and you have with this one successfully shown me a Hairygoplane - a bloody huge great big old Biplane no less, the (one time) existance of which I was unaware...! Well done, olde Bean ; ya got me ! Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

Since being a little kid, I've had an interest in Aircraft, Automobiles, and Ships. Military and civilian. An interest that was wide, but nevertheless has never been deep in technical detail. I guess my interest in just how they look: their design features, may to a real enthusiast, seem shallow. Yet, design aesthetics are hugely important not just for the reasons that allow these machines to function as they've been designed to do. Aero dynamics are vital for an aircraft to be be an aircraft, but some can appear more pleasing to the eye than others. My own enjoyment of aviation channels such as host Rex works hard to produce play an important part, irreplaceable, part in my enjoyment of historic aviation. So let me say a big thank you for the behind the scenes work required to bring these programs to air. Thank you.

Very cool

Incredible! And also a plane that I don't think that I'd ever heard of! And yet -.such a technical success. For a biplane it also didn't look that ungainly, so he obviously learned from he earlier projects. I was going to call "foul!" on the claimed 35' height, until I noticed that this was to the top of the fuselage, not the wing. The complete plane was closer to 7 stories high! Thanks for sharing this story!

Very interesting aircraft

WOW, that's massive!

Caproni was ahead of his time

At some point you'll have to do a breakdown of all the aircraft that inspired Miyazaki's work, especially in _Porco Rosso_

Little known but during the last years of WWI , lacking previous experience, the american pilots were trained in UK, France and Italy before going to combat units. There were 2 training centers In italy, one for seaplane pilots of US Navy on Lake Bolsena and one in Foggia for land-based pilots. In Foggia about 500 american pilots were trained as heavy bomber pilots, all these were trained on Ca.3. Many of these went to serve on Western front in France/Belgium while 75 stayed to serve on the Italian front, among these pilots there was Fiorello LaGuardia. On the Italian front the Americans were intermixed with Italians in the more experienced italian units where they flew italian heavy bombers. These units were mainly equipped with Ca.3 (aka Ca.31 to 36, the biplane heavy bomber briefly shown in this video) but also Ca.4 (aka Ca.40 to 43, triplane heavy bomber) and at the very end also some Ca.5(aka Ca.44 to 46). The importance of Ca.3 for US air services is testified by the fact that of the 2 original planes preserved today, both Ca.36, one is preserved in Italian Air Force Museum near Rome, the other one in USAF museum in Dayton Ohio. Ca.3's were ordered and even license-built by USA and France, Served in French, American and even British units before the british could replace them with enough Handley Page type O. Also the Ca.4 served in US and British(royal navy) units on western front. Also some italian units were transferred to the Western Front, they seldom saw action in conjunction with the french units equipped with the same plane during strategic long-range raids over Cologne, Stuttgard and Friedrichshafen(600km deep into enemy territory!). There is also an amazing airworthy Ca.3 replica(rebuilt from original plans) in Italy, based literally a couple hundred meters from the Piave river(once the front). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jh0yt_EytNY.html

More great content..

Well, I guess I have to watch the wind rises now ) P.s. It will be very interesting to hear your take on Hawker Typhoon

It's a good -looking plane. The engine config seems dated for 1929. Fighters like the P26 would have eaten it for breakfast. But a fascinating era, all the same. Thanks for this Mr. Rex...

Cant believe it had Spoked Hubs! ..imagine the poor soul who had to tighten them , great vid on a Plane Iv'e never heard of..

Thank- you, fascinating,I only saw a Gypsy Moth lookalike he built.Would have been a hand & footfull,in crosswind! I admired Handley Page Heracles etc pilots flying continents in large biplanes,and Alcock& Brown in open Vimy Brave Men

Caproni was certainly ambitious. He did design some good aircraft but they were not so big.

I was a Crew Chief on C-5A Galaxy # 70460, but I still find this quite impressive !

At 00:54 in this video: The _narrower wing_ was _on top??!!_ I have *NEVER* heard of that before.

What a monster!

This is Blohm & Voss levels of wtf

Your videos are grand. How about a video on the Australian CAC Wirraway or the Bell P-39 Airacobra. Thanks and keep the content coming!

What a machine!

Impressive.

Talking of Aircraft requests, can you do an episode on the Transavia Airtruk? It was made in I factory on station road Seven Hills in Sydney, and me and my friend used to watch them take off from the test strip behind the factory from the vantage point of his home on one of the said Hills. Many thanks Rex.

"...some viewed it in the same manner as we view nuclear weapons today..." Now that's what I call a reassuring approach! Just wait for it, not lost, just delayed :)

I like the lines of the Caproni Ca.316.

A very good documentary. Have you thought about doing amphibious craft ?

Quite a lot of airplane!

Remarkable for that time ! I wonder how the aircraft would have handled a rainstorm.

An 11 ton load impressive indeed.😮

I like your stuff. do some early u.s bomber planes

Wow. I'd never heard of this plane before. The engineers must have been working at maximum capability when they designed her.

Do a video on north America aviation, models and noticed design breakthroughs, I think it would be liked

A video on the Beegee airplanes would be really cool ngl.

I must watch the "the Wind rises"

I wonder what aviation would be today if the Great Depression never hit…

One hell of a flying target , but the size is impressive

Just in case there was no headwind available, this Caproni brought its own.

you should also cover the handley page 42

6:42 6 W16 engines with 57 liters each. Wow!

I'm starting to suspect this channel is secretly an advertising endevour for The Wind Rises. Crunchy Roll sponsorship when?

Yet, Italy had the only four engine strategic bomber used in WW2 by the axis powers.

Only one was built. What an amazing plane.. come on you aeromodellers..!

Wow

What is the aeronautical thinking behind sesquiplane wing designs? Does the larger lower wing provide most of the wing loading allowing the shorter upper wing to provide extra lift? The Caproni museum in Trento is excellent and well worth a visit.

Another fascinating video. So what happened to the plane ? Was it scrapped ? crashed ? put in a very large shed and forgotten about ?

The Wind Rises is interesting for giving a humanised viewpoint to conditions of aeroplane designers in Axis countries.

The fact that a f-16 block 60 can weigh more than this thing is crazy to think about.