CASA III

The CASA III was a 1920s Spanish two-seat touring monoplane, designed by Luis Sousa Peco and built by Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) at Getafe near Madrid.

Design and development
In 1929 using experience from the production of licence-built aircraft the company built the CASA III as a touring and training monoplane. It was a parasol monoplane with a fabric-covered steel tube fuselage and it had two tandem open cockpits and wide tack fixed conventional landing gear with a tail skid. Each wing were hinged at the rear spar and they could be folded for storage or transport. The prototype, registered M-CAGG, first flew on 2 July 1929 and was powered by a 90 hp Cirrus III piston engine. Within a few weeks the aircraft had been entered into a handicap air race between Madrid and Brugos, on 25 December 1929 it became the first light aircraft to land in the Canary Islands. The second aircraft was fitted with a 100 hp Isotta-Fraschina Asso 80A engine but it was not a success. In 1930 three CASA IIIs were entered the 1930 Aerial Tour of Europe, but only two actually competed; the prototype which retired with a broken landing gear, and the de Havilland Gipsy I powered third-aircraft (M-CMAM) which arrived to late for the start although it completed the course. Nine aircraft were built all with different engines which included the de Havilland Gipsy III and the Elizade A-6 radial engine. The last aircraft built was delivered to the Spanish Navy.

Operational history
During the civil war all the surviving CASA IIIs were operated by the Republican forces and none of them survived.