The Gabardini Idro is a pioneer airplane built by one of the earliest Italian aircraft manufacturers. It was derived from the landplane that made several memorable flights, including the crossing of the Alps of 27 July 1914.
It was conceived in 1912 by Giuseppe Gabardini (1879-1936) and was built in Taliedo (Milan). Its most original features for the time were the steel-tube fuselage frame and mixed metal-wood wing spars. Lateral control was by wing warping. It flew in spring 1913 with Guido Paolucci (1891-?) and took part in the Turin Military Competition, without winning. In 1914 Gabardini relocated to Cameri, near Novara, where during the First World War his school graduated 1.141 pilots including the famous Arturo Ferrarin (1895-1941) and Guido Keller (1892-1929). The school initially used only Gabardini single-seat monoplanes, collectively known as “Gabarda” but fitted with 35, 50 and 80 HP engines for the various training phases. Postwar the monoplane was known as Tipo Alpi. The Idro flew in summer 1913 and differed from the landplane only in replacing the wheels with wooden floats placed under the cockpit and the tail. It missed the Lakes’ Circuit in Como, but on 14-16 December 1913 Filippo Cevasco (1889-1914) flew it in stages from Sesto Calende, near Varese, to Rome, attracting much attention in the newspapers. A few months later Cevasco died in a crash in Sesto Calende while preparing a Genova-Tripoli flight. The Idro on display is the only survivor of the handful that was built. Its early history is unknown. It was certainly on display in 1934 in the Esposizione Aeronautica Italiana in Milan and in the Caproni Museum in Taliedo in 1940. Restoration by AREA brought to light the civil registration I-AXAC, assigned to the Tipo Alpi no. 508, registered in 1927 and cancelled in 1935. Loaned to the Museum in 2009 by the Caproni family, it was unveiled in Cameri on 4 October 2009.

All data refer to the Model 1914 seaplane.