In that year, together with his Romanian friend and colleague Henri Coandă, he designed and built a biplane glider whose flights took place in the surroundings of Blaumal (in the Ardennes) and were largely successful, leading Caproni to carry on his aeronautical studies.

In June 1909, after going back to Italy, he made an attempt to collect the money he needed to build the machine in Alessandria; however, he didn't manage to convince the local investors of the worthiness of his projects.

[3][4] However, because of the lack of any surface suitable for having an aircraft take off and land in Trentino, Caproni decided to move to Lombardy in order to carry out the test flights.

He thus joined his elder brother, Federico (who had graduated from the Bocconi University of Milan shortly before), and asked the Arma del Genio (the military engineering corps of the Esercito Italiano) for permission to settle at the cascina of Malpensa, in semi-desert area which at the time was in use as a training ground for the cavalry.

The fuselage was composed of a long rectangular truss; the structure was of honeyberry wood with aluminum connections, allowing for a light and flexible construction, comparatively robust and easy to fix in case of accidents.

The wings were fitted with ailerons and had a conventional structure, with tubular plywood spars and wooden ribs supporting a fabric covering.

[12] Between the interplane struts that connected the two wings (which, together with wires, provided structural rigidity) were some vertical surfaces that improved the stability of the aircraft.

[14] The fixed landing gear was composed of five large-diameter wheels of which two were located below the central section of the lower wing, one below each wingtip and one supporting the tail.

Two smaller wheels, mounted at the forward extremity of an extension of the main landing gear structure, were meant to prevent the aircraft from overturning.

[12] The prairie around Malpensa was a moorland covered with heather, bushes and small trees, and it was not clear enough to allow an aircraft to take off and land.

[16] The museum was closed during the Second World War and the Ca.1 was moved to the villa of the Caproni family in Venegono Superiore in order to be safe from Allied bombings.

[16] A replica of the Ca.1 was built in the 2000s (decade) by Mario Marangoni; after being on display in Arco for a few days in September 2009, the faithfully rebuilt aircraft participated in the 2010 centennial celebrations that took place at Trento Airport.