Officine Meccaniche Reggiane SpA (commonly referred to as Reggiane) was an Italian industrial manufacturer and aviation company. Reggiane was founded during 1904 by its parent company Caproni, which was in turn owned by the aeronautical engineer Giovanni Battista Caproni. Throughout the company's existence, it was involved in numerous industrial activities, such as railways, agriculture, aeronautics, and processing machinery. During the first half of the Twentieth Century, Reggiane became well known for the design and production of aircraft. Through the development of the Re.2000, an all-metal monoplane, Reggiane gained a reputation for producing relatively agile single-seat fighter aircraft. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the majority of Reggiane's fighter production was taken over by the Regia Aeronautica (the Italian Air Force). However, the company continued to manufacture and deliver fighters for various other neutral and Axis-aligned nations around this period, such as for the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany, the Hungarian Air Force and the Swedish Air Force. Following the end of the war, the company turned its back on aircraft production, instead focusing upon the civil sector. Throughout the second half of the century, Reggiane came to specialise in the supply of cranes and other dockside equipment. History The company established its main facilities in Reggio Emilia, a city of what today is the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. At its height, Reggiane's factory in the city was the fourth largest in Italy, its footprint covering an area as large as the center of Reggio Emilia, employing as many as 11,000 employees at a time. It was primarily through this plant that Reggiane performed its various industrial activities, becoming involved in the nations's railways, manufacturing a number of locomotives, as well as the agricultural sector, producing a range of food processing equipment. During the 1930s, the company branched out into aircraft production; the first aircraft to be produced by the firm was the Piaggio P.32bis, a medium bomber, which had been developed from the Caproni Ca.405C Procellaria. However, Reggiane's management were keen to branch out into developing their own aircraft designs, rather than solely producing other company's aircraft under license. During 1938, work commenced at Reggiane on a new fighter design; the company's design team, which was headed by Roberto Longhi and Antonio Alessio, set about designing an aircraft that would be offered to the Italian Air Ministry that would not only meet but exceed the requirements of its Programme