The Ca. 60 or Transaereo was Gianni Caproni’s most daring project and its most brutal failure. The Capronissimo, or Transaereo, or Noviplano (from its 3 sets of triple wings) was a flying boat with 8 engines, designed to complete the first transatlantic passenger route.
The aircraft prototype was completed in 1921 and first tested on Lake Maggiore, but in its second flight, on March 4, 1921, it crashed on the waters, breaking up upon impact. The Transaereo was the first project deliberately aimed at completing the inconceivable dream to cross the Atlantic in flight (and how many times we forget how extraordinary it is!). Its failure is a testament to the humble audacity and hope of Caproni, to whom the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki paid homage in his 2013 movie The wind rises. In a memorable scene of the film, Caproni appears in a dream to a young man, Jiro, inviting him onto the wings of his majestic Transaereo, and confessing to him that building airplanes is better than flying. “Airplanes – he adds – are not instruments of war or means to make a profit; they are splendid dreams.”
In this story we see that #innovation is a dream full of failures, a humbling experience of constant testing, a mindset that endures and embraces the unknown with hope and availability. In the words of Matt Ridley, innovation is an “infinite improbability drive”. Ecco, that Transaereo was not a failure, but a step toward the pursuit of that absolute improbability which has become our reality.
You can find out more on the Italian aviation #innovator and #entrepreneur Gianni Caproni at 👉 bit.ly/giannicaproni
#italianinnovators
