Reggiane Fighters In Action

Officine Meccaniche (Mechanical Office) 'Reggiane' S.A. was an aircraft production sub­sidiary of the Caproni industrial group in the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia. It was one of the many factories controlled by Count Ingeneur (Engineer) Gianni Caproni. an Italian industrialist and aircraft designer. Caproni had received graduate degrees in Civil Engineering (Munich, Germany). Electrical Engineering (Liege. Belgium), and Aeronautical Engineering (Paris, France) before returning to Italy in 1910. He designed his first aircraft, the CA-1. that same year and founded the Caproni Aircraft Company and flight school in 1911. After the out­break of World War One in 1914, the firm turned its attention to heavy bombers, producing over 7(H) aircraft in several designs over the next four years. The most notable of these bombers was the CA-33. which was used - and built in some cases - by the United States. Great Britain, and France. After World War One. Caproni continued to design and produce a number of large aircraft, but by the mid-1930s. these designs no longer kept pace with those of other nations. Caproni then turned to the development of light bombers and fighters.