Is this a flying hotel............or what?

Quite a strange looking craft. The wind in all the wires must have made quite the racket.

Thats the Caproni Ca 60, it features prominently in the very funny book 'Worlds Worst Aircraft' which can usually be found for a quid or two on ebay.

Here's a link to a little background on this aviation marvel:

Caproni Ca 60

I've seen Dragonflies look very much like that....
In the springtime...LOL..

Miraculously, this machine DID fly the first time in 1921- it reached a height of 60 feet,

Its a minor miracle the aircraft got that far off the ground. Before I followed the link I thought the image of the Caproni Ca 60 had been photoshoped. The Ca 60
looks like a partial completed movie set. The design seems to lack common sense surely the weight of the wings on top of the fuselage would have been a problem.

[edit on 21-1-2006 by xpert11]

I once read the comment about this "aircraft" that went '....wouldn't have looked out of place sailing up Southampton Water with the Spanish Armada'

I can't imagine any varient of that thing could ever cross the Atlantic. Can you imagine the drag? I'm suprised it had enough power to get out of the water!

G2,

>>
Is this a flying hotel.....Or what?
>>

No but these were-

en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.airwaveyachts.com.au...
www.kotfsc.com...
www.flyingclippers.com...

And they represent a time when air travel was truly unique and exciting for the places it opened up to the world's consciousness and the rate at which you could change centuries as much as time zones in discovering them. Usually as merely an 'addon' to postal services between far flung points of Imperial colonial (resource) settlement. Typically, at pennies per mile compared to what passenger airlines cost as a 'principal' air service.

While the notion of the CA.60 is probably flawed due to unequal torsional stresses (note the leveling of the wings) and lack of a central keel, the fact that it was climbing out of the ground effect at the time of structural failure indicates that the concept itself was probably workable.

Indeed, while the only other triplane flying boat I can immediately think of is the old Judson-

www.earlyaviator.com...
www.earlyaviator.com...

If you think about it, the multiwing configuration does offer some advantages as shown here in the early generation:

www.flyingclippers.com...

1. A 'semiplane' puts stabilizing floats out away from the fuselage without necessarily having to match the full span (weight) of the airfoil. Or deal with endplate and vortice lift effects of the tips.
2. The upper airfoil is that much higher on the back of the plane which reduces the chance of wave clipping in rough seas and salt water contamination of the engines.
3. You can increase rigidity of both airfoils with traditional wire and cabane strut options at minimal weight while the added lift again provides for a shorter span overall which must imply less directional moment (if a single float catches first in chop or on a bad landing) as well as problems inherent to riding wave-swell with longspan wings.
4. Unlike the fully developed 'sponson' system of the later M130 and B314 aircraft, you get a tailored airfoil surface which doesn't require structural crossbeams through the belly of the aircraft for what remains a more or less thick hydrofoil (equal curveature on both sides = maximum inflight drag) design. More lift gets the aircraft out of the water sooner which means the surface drag (air:water) is less of a concern even if friction drag rises overall.

While seaplanes and flying boats have numerous drawbacks in terms of comfort and safety, flying in the heart of the weatherband between 10-20K, volumetrically they are very efficient for lading (volumetric) weight versus structural weight, even as amphibians. Thus, many people believe that as petroleum shortages, land shortages (especially those related to coastal inundation and global warming) plus overall monetary values reduce in a stagnating world economy. We may well see a move back towards 'the journey is half the fun' travel, on simple pricing. The ability of these huge hulled monsters to provide economical transport in the 1,500-2,000+ 'uniclass' or 500-1,000 'mixed' seating, while using comparitively half or one third the equivalent refined fuels (relative to any of the jet-kerosene planned megaliner concepts of today) must surely be tempting.

From an 'impossible dream'-

www.century-of-flight.freeola.com...

To an unrealized dream-

www.msacomputer.com...
airlines.afriqonline.com...
en.wikipedia.org...:Saunders-Roe_Princess.jpg

To the potential of an viable achievement-

www.home-taylor.freeserve.co.uk...
www.boeing.com...
www.twitt.org...

May be a shorter trip than most think, based solely on the same perceived needs as drove the original development of flying boats: to maintain logistical contact with far flung areas at minimal cost. While tangentially opening up our awareness of a greater world.


KPl.

Thanks for the replies everybody!

ch1466 WOW!!!!!!!!!
You have really gone the extra mile. Thanks for the great read!!

who ever got on that plane, better have tooken out life insurance

reply to post by Laxpla


Yes, you could probably say that for most of the early airplanes. I am willing to bet that the insurance companies were charging a pretty heady premium to pilots.

reply to post by waynos


It is in one I have called the Worlds Strangest Aircraft. And it fits right in too.