{"id":5907587,"date":"2026-07-17T11:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=5907587"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:49:21","slug":"caproni-campini-n1-italy-motorjet-first-jet-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/caproni-campini-n1-italy-motorjet-first-jet-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s Jet That Wasn\u2019t Really a Jet"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><p>For a single year, Italy believed it had built the first jet aeroplane in history. On 27 August 1940, a sleek, barrel-shaped machine howled into the sky over Milan with no propeller anywhere to be seen \u2014 and the world\u2019s aviation authority duly recorded it as the first successful flight by a jet aircraft. It was a triumph of Fascist engineering, splashed across newsreels.<\/p><p>It was also, in a sense, a beautiful lie. The Caproni Campini N.1 was not a true jet at all. And a year earlier, in total secrecy, Germany had already flown the real thing.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;border-radius:8px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:15px;letter-spacing:.03em;color:#111\">QUICK FACTS<\/p><table style=\"border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px;line-height:1.5\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Role<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Experimental jet-propulsion demonstrator<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">First flight<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">27 August 1940 (pilot Mario de Bernardi)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Engine<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">\"Motorjet\": 900 hp Isotta Fraschini piston engine driving a compressor, with afterburner<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Thrust<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">~1,600 lbf<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Top speed<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">233 mph (375 km\/h) \u2014 slower than piston fighters of the day<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Number built<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">2 (one survives at Vigna di Valle)<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A jet without a jet engine<\/h2><p>The N.1 was the work of engineer Secondo Campini, who had been studying jet propulsion since 1931 and had even demonstrated a jet-powered boat in Venice to prove the principle. But he did not have a turbojet. Instead he built a \"motorjet\" \u2014 a hybrid in which an ordinary 900-horsepower Isotta Fraschini piston engine, buried in the fuselage, drove a compressor that forced air through a duct, where a burner added a final kick of thrust.<\/p><p>It worked, after a fashion. But it was heavy, complicated, and thirsty, and it produced only about 1,600 pounds of thrust \u2014 enough for a top speed of just 233 mph, slower than the propeller fighters it was meant to render obsolete. The cockpit ran so hot the two-man crew flew with the canopies open.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TAkbBmaG3zs\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=774547594  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/caproni-campini-ground-test.jpg\" alt=\"Campini Caproni ground test\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A ground test with the tail removed: the lit burner glows inside the airflow from the compressor. The \"motorjet\" was a clever dead end. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Historian Sterling Michael Pavelec sums the machine up in three words.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid  #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;heavy and underpowered&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Sterling Michael Pavelec<\/strong> &mdash; historian, \"The Jet Race and the Second World War\" (2007)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">First \u2014 until the secret got out<\/h2><p>Because Germany had kept the 27 August 1939 flight of its Heinkel He 178 \u2014 a genuine turbojet \u2014 a state secret, the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration A\u00e9ronautique Internationale credited the Campini N.1 as the world\u2019s first jet aircraft. For a while, Italy owned one of the great firsts in aviation. Then the truth about the He 178 emerged, and the record quietly changed hands. The He 178 had beaten the Italians into the air by exactly one year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=9566724  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/caproni-campini-museum-vigna-di-valle.jpg\" alt=\"The surviving Caproni Campini N.1\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">One of the two N.1s built survives at the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle, near Rome. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid  #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;While the N.1 validated the feasibility of jet propulsion, it lacked the power and efficiency to compete with piston designs then in service.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Austin Hancock<\/strong> &mdash; Vintage Aviation News<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>The motorjet was an evolutionary dead end. Within a few years, Frank Whittle\u2019s and Hans von Ohain\u2019s true turbojets made Campini\u2019s clever hybrid obsolete forever. But strip away the \"first jet\" mythology and something real remains: a brave, imaginative attempt to leap into the jet age using the tools one country actually had. It flew. It just flew into the wrong future.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bNz1zZSozPA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><em>Sources: Sterling Michael Pavelec, \"The Jet Race and the Second World War\"; Vintage Aviation News; Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/pushed-by-angels-the-me-262s-doomed-revolution\/\">Pushed by Angels: The Me 262\u2019s Doomed Revolution<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-engine-with-no-propeller-how-the-jet-age-was-born-in-secret\/\">The Engine With No Propeller: How the Jet Age Was Born in Secret<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For one year Italy thought it had built the first jet. The Caproni Campini N.1 was a clever &#8220;motorjet&#8221; \u2014 and Germany had secretly flown the real thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":5907359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5907587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Italy\u2019s Jet That Wasn\u2019t Really a Jet | Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For one year Italy thought it had built the first jet. 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