what is it?
The CAP-1 Planalto was a military trainer aircraft built in Brazil during World War II. It was a low-wing cantilever monoplane with fixed tailwheel undercarriage that accommodated the pilot and instructor in tandem open cockpits. The project had been initiated by Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas (IPT) under the designation IPT-4 and although the design work had been contracted to CAP, IPT insisted on a wing profile of its own choosing that led to serious stability problems in the final product. The CAP-3 replaced the CAP-1's Franklin 4AC engine with a de Havilland Gipsy with double its power, but the stability problems remained unaddressed until CAP engineer Oswaldo Fadigas redesigned the wing in the CAP-6.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 8.6 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 84 years ago, in 1942.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1942
- number built
- 20
- role
- military trainer
- makers
- Paulista
- engines
- 1× Franklin 4AC
- crew
- 2
- length
- 6.4 m
- wingspan
- 8.6 m
- height
- 2.6 m
- max take-off weight
- 570 kg
- top speed
- —
- cruise speed
- 155 km/h
- range
- —
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q1022814, Wikipedia: CAP-1 Planalto (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.