I have sitting in front of me, a picture of the Caproni Ca-44. This
particular aircraft is reputedly one of 19 Capronis aquired by the US
Navy in 1918 for use with the Northern Bombing Group's night wing.
The upper surfaces of the upper wing and tail are painted in a camoflauge
scheme, which I assume is the green/gray pattern used by the Italians.
Here is where it gets interesting...
The rondel on the fuselage is clearly an American one (red-blue-white),
and the serial number is B-15. However, the insignia on the upper
surface of the wing are not American (white is clearly the color of the
center marking), so I assume that they are Italian. The tail stripes
appear to be blue(green maybe?)-white-red front to back.
I guess I have four questions...
First, has anyone ever contacted the US Naval Institute to get
photographs of WWI subjects (they are pretty good with modern and WWII
subjects)? If so, did you have any luck?
Second, anyone have any Caproni Ca-44 references (pictures or color
plates)? I have access to two other Ca-44 pictures in _Naval Aviation
in World War I_, but neither is at an angle to view insignia markings
(one is of a crashed plane stillin Italian markings).
Three, is there a 3 view line drawing of the Ca-44 in the Harleyford book
on bombers? Also, is there any appreciable difference between the Ca-44
and Ca-45? Or any of the Ca-4x planes?
Last, why the @#$% do we do this :)
Regards from Central Pennsylvania,
Joe
boeke@bucknell.edu