Giovanni Battista Caproni | |
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Giovanni Caproni (left) poses with his brother, c. the early 20th century.
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Born |
Massone d'Arco, Austria-Hungary |
July 3, 1886
Died | October 27, 1957 Rome, Italy |
(aged 71)
Nationality | Italian |
Citizenship | Italy |
Occupation | Aeronautical engineer, electrical engineer, civil engineer, aircraft designer |
Years active | 1907-c. 1950 |
Giovanni Battista Caproni, 1st Count of Taliedo (July 3, 1886 – October 27, 1957), known as "Gianni" Caproni, was an Italian aeronautical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and aircraft designer who founded the Caproni aircraft-manufacturing company.
Caproni was born on July 3, 1886 in Massone, which at the time was in Austria-Hungary but became a part of Italy in 1919. In 1907 he received a degree in civil engineering from the Technical University Munich. A year later he received a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Liège.
In 1907 and 1908, Caproni gained experience in the construction of aircraft engines; he also collaborated with the Romanian aircraft designer Henri Coandă, whom he had met at l'Istituto Montefiori di Liegi, in the building of sailplanes. In 1908, he founded the Caproni factory in the Taliedo district of Milan, Italy, to manufacture biplanes. In 1909 he opened an industrial airport near the Cascina Malpensa – today's Milan–Malpensa Airport – to manufacture and test his aircraft. In 1910, he designed and built his first powered aircraft, the Caproni Ca. 1, an experimental biplane which was the first aircraft built in Italy. It was destroyed during its first flight on May 27, 1910.