Caproni Stipa
Caproni · Italy · first flew 1932 · light aircraft
The 'flying barrel': Luigi Stipa put the propeller inside a huge venturi-tube fuselage in 1932 — ridiculous to look at, and a genuine ancestor of ducted-fan thinking.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | Mid-mounted, straight |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × piston, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | The fuselage IS a barrel — engine and prop inside a flying duct |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- The fuselage IS a barrel — engine and prop inside a flying duct
- Crew perch in tandem on top of the tube
- Ancestor concept of the ducted fan and jet-age intake
A stubby open-ended barrel with wings, the propeller spinning deep inside the front opening and two heads poking from the top — unmistakable and faintly comic.
Specifications
- The Caproni Stipa has a length of 5.88 m (19 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 14.28 m (47 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 131 km/h (81 mph).
- Typical crew: 2.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Stipa's intubed-propeller theory got a Caproni-built testbed that flew stably (if slowly) in 1932. The drag of the barrel outweighed the duct's thrust gain, but the data fed later Italian jet work — Campini cited it.
Variants
One aircraft only; proposals for intubed airliners went nowhere.
Where you'll see it
Long scrapped; a flying 3/5-scale replica was built in Australia in 2001, proving the barrel really flies.
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- Caproni Ca.113
- Caproni Ca.114
- Caproni Ca.133
- Caproni Ca.90
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