Caproni Campini Ca.183bis

The Caproni-Campini Ca.183bis was an Italian projected high-altitude fighter intended to have both piston and jet propulsion.

Design and development
The Ca.183bis was intended to have a 1,250 hp Daimler-Benz DB 605 in the nose driving a six-bladed contra-rotating propeller, augmented by a secondary piston engine behind the cockpit driving a Campini compressor, expected to furnish a 100 km/h boost from jet thrust for an optimistic maximum speed of 740 km/h with a range of 2000 km. One 20 mm or 30 mm cannon was to be in the propeller hub with four more 20 mm cannon in the wings. Weight was to be 7500 kg.

The prototype was 80% complete by the time of the armistice. After Mussolini escaped from captivity with German help and became the nominal leader of the Italian Social Republic in September 1943, Italian work continued on the prototype. However, various attacks against military structures slowed the development and the prototype was probably destroyed in 1944.