CANT 23

CANT

Industry	Aviation, Aircraft manufacturing
Headquarters	Monfalcone , Italy
Key people	Raffaele Conflenti (chief designer and technical office director)
Products	Aircraft, including CANT 23

The CANT 23 was an Italian trimotor airliner developed by CANT during the late 1920s.

Design

Constructed entirely from metal, the CANT 23 featured a traditional design as a three-engine biplane with a fixed undercarriage. Its fuselage had a rectangular cross-section and was built using duraluminium. The cabin was enclosed and accommodated ten individual seats, each positioned alongside five rectangular windows on either side. The pilot's cockpit was open and situated above the fuselage, ahead of the wings, shielded by a windshield. The aircraft's wing arrangement was a biplane-sesquiplane configuration: the upper wing, larger in span, was connected to the significantly smaller lower wing by means of a Warren truss structure. Both wings incorporated side members shaped in profile and square-section tubular ribs, all covered with painted fabric.

Development

In 1927, Società Italiana Servizi Aerei (SISA)—owned by Callisto and Alberto Cosulich along with CRDA—commenced operations on the route linking Trieste, Italy, to Budapest, then the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary. Anticipating growth in air travel demand and the potential for establishing new connections throughout Central and Eastern Europe, plans were made to open a route connecting Trieste’s Ronchi dei Legionari airport—or alternatively the under-construction Noghere airport near Zaule village—with Vienna and onward to Budapest.

This project marked CRDA-CANT’s first foray into landplane design, moving away from their traditional seaplane focus. Engineer Raffaele Conflenti, serving as chief designer and technical office director at Monfalcone, oversaw development. Drawing on experience gained from the CANT 22 flying boat series, the new aircraft—designated CANT 23—exhibited a conventional layout but introduced a duralumin fuselage featuring an enclosed passenger cabin paired with an open pilot cockpit. The aircraft’s three tractor-configured engines and cowling bore strong resemblance to those of its predecessor, the CANT 22.

Although construction began in 1927, progress proceeded slowly through to the early 1930s. By 1929, a static test airframe had been assembled; however, the prototype bearing serial number NC.136 was not officially registered (as I-ABLA) until July 11, 1932. Despite its all-metal construction, rapid advancements in aviation technology quickly rendered the CANT 23 obsolete. Consequently, development ceased on May 1, 1933, and the project was ultimately discontinued.