J.Davilla Italian Aviation in the First World War. Vol.2: Aircraft A-H (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 74)

Calderara Floatplane

  Mario Calderara, while a student of the Naval Academy, had observed the flight of seabirds, and for a long time had been in scientific correspondence with the Wright brothers. In 1905, tenente vase. Calderara, had built his unit own seaplane (without an engine), one of the first in the world, and experimented with techniques for takeoffs and landings on the water. It was a sailplane equipped with floats, and by being towed by the destroyer Lanciere, he had learned to rise on the water, to keep in the air, after having disconnected the cable, and to do aerial tricks, alighting then again on the sea. It was during one of these experiments that he crashed into the water, with minor injuries. Tenente Calderara had attended (at his expense) an aeronautics course at the Brigata Specialisti del Genio (Engineers Specialists Brigade) between the end of 1906 and the beginning of 1907.
  After the satisfactory experiences of 1907 with his glider, he asked for a six-month sabbatical to travel to France at the “Ateliers Voisin” in Billancourt (Seine).
  He obtained his license on 23 July 1908, and contributed to research and experiments in the Officine Voisin. He also designed an airplane with the French aviation pioneer Goupy. There is no description of this airplane. A photo that bears the caption “Calderara Airplane” shows a biplane with wheel undercarriage, rudders in front of the wings and pusher engine, which, most likely, represents the airplane that made the first flight to Buc on 11 March 1909. From 1 October 1908 to 1 April 1909, he was allowed to remain in France, learning to pilot various types of experimental airplanes at private French aviation establishments.
  Another memo by Maripers dated 1 May 1909, signed by chap. corv. Bonaldi, stated that: In a letter dated 4 December 1908, he asked that a naval officer be delegated to assist him in purchasing a Wright airplane and to learn how to fly it. The airplane was bought, but Mr. Calderara was unable to practice piloting in France because Wright was busy training pilots for the French government.
  Eventually, Calderara was chosen by Wright himself to begin his formal aviation education. Calderara was ordered to come to Rome so that he could be present at the beginning of the instructions.
  In the months of August and September the First International Air Circuit was announced; Calderara was recalled from the mission in France and considered to be on a mission in Italy from 1 April to 31 December 1909.
  The piloting course was held in Centocelle from 15 to 26 April 1909 and Calderara made 40 flights lasting a total of about 6 hours. These flights were all solo since there were no dual-control aircraft at the time.
  After Wright’s departure, Calderara continued his flights on the aircraft that the American, at the end of the contract, had donated to the Aviators Club. In particular, on 1 May 1909 Calderara, having on board tenente Savoy, managed to stay in the air for 25 minutes.
  Unfortunately, on 6th May he crashed from a height of 10 m, smashing the aircraft and injuring himself quite seriously.
  Having recovered his health, he continued his training and participated in the Brescia Circuit, which took place from 8 to 20 September. The competitors were 12, including four Italians, while among the foreigners there were the French Luigi Bleriot, Enrico Rouger, Alfredo Leblanc and the American Glenn H. Curtiss. The Italian participants were Eng. Aristide Faccioli of Turin with a triplane piloted by his son Mario equipped with a 25-hp engine, Marra and Altieri di Centocelle and Mario Cobianchi, the latter three on airplanes of their own construction.
  Calderara, on the Wright aircraft of the Aviators Club, which he re-equipped with a Rebus engine, distinguished himself by winning five of the eight most important prizes: the King’s Cup, the Brescia Prize, the Passenger Transport Prize, the Principe Prize Olofredi and the Corriere della Sera Award.
  Then at the request of the Comando della Brigata Specialisti del Genio (Comando del 3° Dipartimento Engineers Specialists Brigade) he was sent to Frankfurt to attend the Aviation Circuit from 4 to 14 October. Having thus gained extensive experience in the aeronautical field, he designed his own seaplane, whose construction plan was presented to the Ministry of the Navy in 1910.
  On 28 July 1911, the commander-in-chief at Spezia, Vice Admiral Leone Viale wrote:
  ...let me know that the Gnome engine already purchased in France for the airplane of the T. V. will soon arrive. In these conditions, the removal of Mr. Calderara would seriously harm the continuation of all the works and the Regia Marina would perhaps miss the fruit that was already foreseen when the aforementioned officer was entrusted with the construction of the type designed by the same.
  The hydroplane designed by Calderara was a monoplane equipped with four floats, with a tubular lattice fuselage to support the rudders, all at the aft end of the aircraft; this was a reversal of the Wright’s layout which had rudders mounted horizontally in front of the wings. The central float consisting of four segments divided into twenty watertight compartments and held together by a solid frame. The fuselage had two closed cabins equipped with windows.
  The flights began in December 1911, and probably lasted until the end of October 1912. At the end of the test flights, Calderara sent the following report to the Inspectorate of Aeronautical Services of the Ministry of War:
  Venice 5 November 1912 Special protocol N. 65
  R. Arsenale of Venice Sect. Marine Aviation
  The undersigned has carried out the construction of a seaplane in the 1st Department Maritime Arsenal in which he has tried to develop the characteristics that he considers most suitable to make a marine airplane completely independent from any external help.
  Tire trial period of this aircraft can be considered closed after the last happy flights with three people.
  The characteristics of the seaplane are as follows:
  1st great buoyancy stability;
  2nd great resistance of the central float to the impact of waves in rough seas;
  3rd the possibility of rescuing oneself on said raft (center float) in case of damage on the high seas;
  4th the possibility to move on board to repair small failures, check the engine and start it.
  Since the set of qualities listed above gives the seaplane a degree of practicality and safety not previously achieved in other aircraft, the undersigned would ask to submit it to the Competent Commission, pursuant to art. 167 reported in the order sheet of the Ministry of the Navy on 26 June 1908 art. 10.
  Lieutenant Mario Calderara
  Attached to this letter was a drawing, showing a three view and a lost photograph.
  During the tests some changes had been reported: in particular the floats had been reduced to three: a larger central one (in the letter: “the raft”) and two smaller lateral ones. There were two rudders, one front and one rear, as on Wright’s plane; a pusher propeller behind the wing; and a cockpit in which two passengers could be accommodated.
  When, in October 1912, the Inspectorate of Aeronautical Services established the “Airplanes Section”, Calderara was assigned, as shown in his serial number from 1 October 1912 to 31 March 1913, at the “Venice Seaplane Squadron”.
  When, in October 1912, the Servizi Aeronautici (Inspectorate of Aeronautical Services) established the “Sezione Idroaeroplani (Seaplane Section), Calderara was assigned from 1 October 1912 to 31 March 1913, to the Squadriglia Idrovolanti Venezia (Venice Seaplane Squadron).
  The Sezione Aviazione di Venezia (Aviation Section of Venice), set up in Le Vergini in mid 1912 with Calderra, Ginocchio, Guidoni, and Curtiss-Paulhans for use as a training center.
  He was on special leave for two years from 1 June 1913 and went to England to improve his flying technique. He was recalled into service on October 16, 1914, and sent to Albania from November 1, 1914 to January 23, 1915. After about two years of embarkation on various units, he was assigned command of the R. Bolsena, a post he held from December 28, 1917 to August 31, 1919; then he was appointed aeronautical officer at the Italian embassy in Washington from June 1923 to October 1925.


Calderara Floatplane 100-hp Gnome engine
  Wingspan 17.60 m; length 16.50 m; the wing area 70 square meters
  Empty weight 620 kg.
  Maximum speed 70-80 km/h.

Журнал Flight

Flight, November 23, 1912.

EDDIES.

   Jules Nardini, too, is intending to go abroad, and in all probability will be in Venice by the time these lines appear in print. It is to test a new hydro-monoplane that has been designed and built by Lieut. Calderara, that he is going there. In its design, so I learnt during a chat with Nardini on Tuesday last, it is unlike any machine flying to-day, in that a platform is provided, so that the four passengers the machine has been designed to carry may promenade to their heart's content. For its wings, they are not merely coupled up to the body of the machine by steel cable triangulation, but are braced on the open girder system that characterized the Bleriot test aerobus that the late Lemartin flew at Pau last year. A 100-h.p. Gnome is fitted which can be started by a mechanic on board the machine. Already some considerable amount of success has been met with during tests that have been carried out at Spezzia, where the machine was built. It has remained in the air for periods up to one and a half hours.
o o o
   Lieut. Calderara is the most experienced flying man Italy possesses. His acquaintance with the art dates back to the early part of 1909, when he was learning to fly under the tuition of the late Wilbur Wright. He was that pioneer's first Italian pupil. He had a very serious smash away back in those early days, but fortunately he recovered sufficiently to enable him to compete in the Brescia meeting in the September of 1909, where he won L1,440 in prize money, and carried off the King's cup. From the biplane he turned his attention to the speedier single-decker, and did a great deal of flying. He was recently appointed instructor to the hydro-aeroplane pupils undergoing tuition at the Italian Government School at Venice.


Flight, March 1, 1913.

LIEUT. CALDERARA AND HIS HYDROVOL.

   AN interesting personality just arrived in England is Lieut. Mario Calderara of the Italian Navy, whose name is well known to all readers of FLIGHT as the pioneer of service aviation in his own country. Among those who flew over the Arab lines when aeroplanes made their debut in warfare, were several of Lieut. Calderara's pupils, and on that occasion Lieut. Calderara's duties were, for the most part, those of organisation and supervision.
   Lieut. Calderara has come to England in the interests of his "hydrovol," to which we referred in FLIGHT on November 23rd last, and because he realises that this country is perhaps more interested than many others in rapidly expanding her aerial forces and should, therefore, afford a promising field for the development of a machine that is essentially designed for service work at sea.
   The Calderara "hydrovol" is a singularly interesting monoplane and one of the largest in existence, for it has a wing surface of 770 sq. ft., a span of 66 ft. and a carrying capacity for three men in addition to fuel and oil for 6 1/2 hours with a 100-h.p. Gnome. The weight is 2,644 lbs.
   That which is of the greatest interest about the "hydrovol" is the design of the substructure by which it is supported on floats. Lieut. Calderara, being an officer of the Italian Navy, looks at the hydroplane from a very practical standpoint and realises some of the essentials that have not perhaps altogether been grasped by those who have less idea of the use that will be required of such machines under actual conditions. In the first place he has succeeded in providing a wide base for his machine on the water, the outside floats being 21 ft. apart.
   Secondly, the centre of gravity of the system is only 4 ft, 6 ins. above the water line and is so disposed relatively to the floats as to eliminate any tendency to slew sideways when first striking the water. A considerable portion of the weight is carried on the large tail, which is mounted at the rear extremity of an openwork frame that is more like those used on the Farman biplanes than it is like anything ordinarily employed in monoplane construction.
   Realising that the occupants of aeroplanes used in service work at sea may often be in difficulties through disablement that necessitates their landing on the water in foul weather, the designer has been at some pains to construct the floats and their attachments so as to form a complete unit that can in emergency be used as a raft. With the same object in view it has been sought to make the wings readily detachable, so that under such circumstances if the machine was obviously in danger of founding the wings might be cut adrift. Small sails can be hoisted on the uprights, and a successful experiment of this kind has actually been made.
   Lieut. Calderara's present machine has a 100-h.p. Gnome engine, but another is building for the Italian Navy under the supervision of the designer's brother, who is an officer in the Italian Army, and will be fitted with one of the new 160-h.p. Gnome engines. The engine and propeller are situated behind the main wings, the cockpit for the passengers is in front of the engine and the cockpit for the pilot is in front of that for the passengers. In front of the pilot again, the body projects still further to afford space for a gun or other appliance.
   As seen in the illustrations, which have very courteously been supplied to us by Lieut. Calderara himself, the wings of the machine have a pronounced dihedral angle, but in future this feature will be abandoned. Hinged balancing planes of 88 sq. ft. surface each, are let in to the trailing edges of the wings, and are operated by the single wheel control, which also works the front and rear elevators and the twin rudders.
   We also give diagrams prepared from rough sketches made by the designer, showing the shape of the floats which weigh only 53 lbs. each, and the arrangement of the structure immediately above the floats.


Flight, June 28, 1913.

THE CALDERARA HYDRO-AEROPLANE.

   AN interesting function, both socially and scientifically, took place at Lord Blyth's residence, in Portland Place, on Tuesday afternoon last week, when the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Italian Ambassador, the Lord Mayor of London, and many other distinguished guests were invited to meet Lieut. M. Calderara, of the Royal Italian Navy, and to hear a short lecture by Mr. F. Fabbricotti, on the aeroplane that Mr. Calderara built for the Italian navy. The lecture was accompanied by a series of uncommonly interesting kinematograph views, showing the machine in flight.
   Our readers are already familiar with the general outlines of the Calderara machine. They will remember that it is an exceedingly large hydro-monoplane, probably, in fact, the largest monoplane in existence. Its other outstanding peculiarity is the raft-like base on which it rides the water, and which permits the mechanics to scramble about the lower part of the machine in comparative safety while it is at sea. Some of the pictures showed the mechanics moving about while the aeroplane was navigating the water, and Lieut. Calderara has actually had mechanics climb from the floats to the body of the machine whilst he was in full flight.
   It is always interesting, and frequently instructive, to learn something about the work of other nations in the realm of aviation, and particularly is the opportunity not to be missed when one can hear first hand views on the subject. Moreover, it must further be admitted that the views of any of Wilbur Wright's own pupils on the subject of aeroplane construction, no less than the views of a naval officer on the requirements of a hydro-aeroplane ought to be worthy of consideration.
   Mr. Fabricotti made it very clear that Lieut. Calderara did not wish this particular machine to be regarded as an expression of his fixed and inflexible idea of the best type for marine purposes. On the contrary, he had been called upon to design for a specific purpose, and that specific purpose he had fulfilled to the satisfaction of the Italian Navy.
   The reason why he chose to build his machine as a monoplane was mainly in order that the wing-tips might be as far removed from the water as possible. The reason why this feature assumed a particular importance on this occasion, was because the wing tips are the most easily damaged of any part of the machine, and the Italian authorities had made a very strong point of securing a hydro-aeroplane that should be as little liable to accidental damage of this character as possible. Indeed, they particularised their views in the matter by limiting the allowance for repairs during the trials to the sum of L20. The size of the machine was, of course, a natural consequence of the weight to be carried in flight, which is always heavier in the case of a hydro-aeroplane.
   A portion of the film that was of especial interest was that showing the action of the floats in the water. The floats employed on this machine are those now being built in this country by the Avion Float Co., and the pictures in question were taken at close range with the camera on board the machine. It is, of course, impossible to describe them in detail, but they are certainly of sufficient interest to be seen by those who are directly concerned with hydro-aeroplane development, and we have no doubt that arrangements for seeing the film could be made with Mr. Fabbricotti, who may be addressed at the works of the Avion Float Co., 17, Wharf Road, City Road, London, N.