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The Caproni Ca.311 was a

light bomber A light bomber is a relatively small and fast type of military bomber aircraft that was primarily employed before the 1950s. Such aircraft would typically not carry more than one ton of ordnance. The earliest light bombers were intended to dro ...

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

produced in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

prior to and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was a member of the large family of Caproni designs derived from the Ca.306

airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ...

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

of 1935, and more directly a modification of the

Ca.310 The Caproni Ca.310 ''Libeccio'' (Italian: southwest wind) was an Italian monoplane, twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft used in World War II. Derived from the similar Ca.309, it had its combat debut during the Spanish Civil War and took part i ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

. As with other related types, it was a low-wing

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

of conventional design. This particular design incorporated the Ca.310's retractable main

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

, as well as the heavily glazed nose that had been tested on the Ca.310''bis'' prototype. New features included a relocation of the dorsal

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

to a position immediately aft of the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

, and additional glazing throughout the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

. From 1940, this aircraft began to replace the

IMAM Ro.37 The Meridionali Ro.37 ''Lince'' (Italian language, Italian: "Lynx") was a two-seater Italian reconnaissance biplane, a product of the ''Industrie Meccaniche Aeronautiche Meridionali'' (IMAM) company. It appeared in 1934 and had a composite st ...

in service, completing this process the following year.

Variants

* Ca.311 - Twin-engined reconnaissance bomber aircraft. * Ca.311M (''Modificato'' - "Modified") - version with less glazing

Operators

; *'' Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske'' ; *''

Regia Aeronautica The Italian Royal Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolis ...

'' - 284 aircraft Caproni Ca.311
/ref> ; *

Yugoslav Royal Air Force The Royal Yugoslav Air Force ( sh-Latn, Jugoslovensko kraljevsko ratno vazduhoplovstvo, JKRV; sh-Cyrl, Југословенско краљевско ратно ваздухопловство, ЈКРВ; ( sl, Jugoslovansko kraljevo vojno letalstv ...

; *

SFR Yugoslav Air Force The Air Force and Air Defence ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Ратно ваздухопловство и противваздушна одбрана, Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazdušna odbrana ; abbr. sh-Cyrl-Latn, label=none, separator=/, РВ и ПВ� ...

- Postwar.

Specifications (Ca.311)

References

Sources

* * *
Уголок неба

External links

* http://wmilitary.neurok.ru/caproni.ca311.html * https://comandosupremo.com/caproni-ca-311/ {{Caproni aircraft 1930s Italian bomber aircraft Ca.311 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1939 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft