[citation needed] In 1908, he founded the Caproni factory in the Taliedo district of Milan, Italy, to manufacture biplanes.

In 1911, the year his company was named Società de Agostini e Caproni, he switched to monoplane construction, in which he had greater success.

Although it made a very favorable impression on the public when first displayed, the Ca.48 probably never entered airline service, and on August 2, 1919, a Ca.48 crashed near Verona, Italy, killing everyone on board (14, 15, or 17 people, according to various sources) in Italy's first commercial aviation disaster and one of the earliest – and, at the time, the deadliest – airliner accidents in history.

[1] The Caproni company produced aircraft for the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) during World War II – primarily bombers, transports, seaplanes, and trainers, although the Caproni Vizzola subsidiary also built several fighter prototypes.

[7] In the 2013 Japanese anime film The Wind Rises, a fictionalized version of him interacts with the protagonist.