The Transaero was unlike any aircraft ever built. With 8 engines, 9 wings, and room for 100 passengers. And it was going to do what had never been done before. Fly passengers all the way across the Atlantic, when ocean crossings were still only possible by boat. But in 1921, the flight was still in its infancy. And this enormous machine was setting out to do the impossible.
For centuries, traveling from Europe to North America meant crossing the Atlantic aboard a ship. And in the 18th century, it took a sailing ship week to make the journey. In the 19th century, faster and more reliable steamships could make the crossing in just over a week. By the 20th century, enormous steam turbine ocean liners could cross the Atlantic in a matter of days. But after centuries of progress ships had more or less reached their limit. Ocean crossings weren't going to get much faster. And it was right around this time that some were beginning to look to new technology. In June of 1919, two daring British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown set out to cross the Atlantic in an airplane.
Taking off from the tip of North America aboard a heavily modified WWI-era bomber, the two pilots barely survived fierce North Atlantic storms, failing equipment, and even a crash landing in Europe. But they made it, completing the world's first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in just 16 hours.
They received a hero s welcome. But despite their achievement, regular passenger-carrying
flights across the Atlantic were at least another 20 years away. Because in 1919, knowledge about aerodynamics and the mechanics of flight still was not fully understood. But a pioneering Italian aircraft builder by the name, Giovanni Caproni wasn't going to wait around. In the same year, Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop crossing, Caproni was already overseeing the construction of an enormous transatlantic airliner. A giant flying boat he dubbed the Ca. 60 Transaero.
While Alcock and Brown s plane carried just the two daring pilots, Caproni s flying boat would accommodate one hundred passengers along with a crew of eight. These were unheard of numbers for 1919. And while Caproni had already made a name for himself building Italy s first airplane and many successful military aircraft, many dismissed his giant flying boat as a complete fantasy. But as photos of the enormous aircraft appeared in the press, the world began to take Caproni’s ambitions more seriously. Because in many ways, he was a visionary who had long dreamt about the potential of large passenger aircraft. Especially in parts of the world where transportation infrastructure was still underdeveloped.
But no one had ever attempted to build an aircraft this large. And Caproni's design philosophy seems to have been. to take whatever was known to work, and to do a lot more of it. Because with nine wings, the Transaero was unconventional even by 1920 s standards. And also had eight of the most powerful engines available at the time, configured with some engines pulling the aircraft forward while others pushed. Keeping the enormous plane together were more than 250 meters of struts and over two kilometers of bracing wire. Inside the Transaero were benches for one hundred passengers and large windows for taking in panoramic views. Operating the aircraft would be a team effort. With two pilots upfront in an open-air cockpit, and two flight engineers sitting on top to operate the engines.
To communicate, the pilots and flight engineers would rely on a complex system of lights and indicators. The Transaero was an extraordinary machine, built to usher in a new era of mass air travel. The Transaero made its first test flight sometime in February or March of 1921. Managing to reach 80 km/h before briefly lifting out of the water. Incredibly, the Transaero could actually fly. But there s a reason why aircraft aren't built with nine wings. Arranged in neat a row, each set of wings interfered with the ability of the next set to produce lift. And all of the struts and wire rigging produced enormous drag. The Transaereo's center of lift also looked to be way above its center of mass, which made the aircraft stable but extremely difficult to control. So you can probably guess where this is going.
On its second test flight, things didn't go so well. This time the Transaero lifted off, reached 100 km/h, and then promptly smashed back into the water. Leaving a broken tangled mess. In an instant, Caproni s dreams of transatlantic air travel were shattered. But even if the Transaero had been airworthy, It s not entirely clear how it was supposed to make it all the way across the Atlantic. With a cruising speed of just 130 km/h and an hour and a range of about 600 km, the journey from Italy to America would have taken days. Requiring at least a dozen refueling stops. Many of which would have been in the middle of the Atlantic, were taking on fuel from a waiting ship would have been impractical if not dangerous.
But Caproni firmly believed that mass air travel was the future. And he had the right idea but at the wrong time. Because the Transaero was a plane designed to do what was still impossible in 1920. And it would take another two decades before aviation technology would catch up, allowing for regular transatlantic passenger flights to begin in 1939. But a decade after the Transaero, Caproni was back at it. This time, helping to design what many claims is the ugliest aircraft ever built.
But in many ways, the Stipa-Caproni was even more forward-thinking. And some even claim that this plane helped pave the way for turbofan engines.
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