Breda Ba.88

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Breda Ba.88
Type Ground attack aircraft
Manufacturer Ernesto Breda
Maiden flight October 1936
Introduced 1938
Retired 1941
Primary user Regia Aeronautica
Produced 1936-1940
Number built 149

The Breda Ba.88 Lince (Italian: Lynx) was a ground-attack plane used by the Italian Regia Aeronautica during World War II.

Contents

[edit] History

The Breda Ba.88 was designed to fulfill a 1936 requirement by the Regia Aeronautica for a heavy fighter/bomber capable of a maximum speed of 530 km/h[1], armament of 20 mm guns and range of 2,000 km, it first flew in October 1936. The project derived from the aborted Ba.75, designers being Giuseppe Panzeri and Antonio Parano. It used a fuselage with a "concentric" fuselage, but this solution, although granting a notable structural strength, caused excessive weight and construction delays. This would force also to carry bombs in a semi-external structure, much to detriment of the plane's aerodynamics. Neverthless, the single-tailed prototype set a speed record on 100 km circuit in 1937 (518 km/h). This was increased to 554 km/h when it was re-equipped with the definitive engines, the 1,000-hp Piaggio P.XI-RC40, also using a double tail.

Despite the promising beginning, the performance resulted severely limited by the addition of military equipment. Aerodynamics was extremely poor, and a the wing load was high. The contract was cancelled, but later production was resumed, mostly for political reasons and to avoid closing production lines of Breda and its satellite company IMAM.

Two squadrons were equipped with the Breda Ba.88 from June 1940, starting operating from Sardinia. Later they served in the North Africa theatre, but the performances remained extremely poor. A maximum horizontal speed of 250 km/h was reported in some cases when anti-sand filters were used, and several units were even unable to take off at all. An improved version, Ba.88M, was developed by Agusta with greater wingspan, removing the machine gun armament for the role of dive bomber.

149 units were produced. Most of them ending up being used as airfield decoys.

[edit] Operators

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Which was more than that of any other aircraft existing or being planned at the time.

[edit] Specifications (Ba.88)

General characteristics

  • Crew: 2
  • Length: 10.79 m (35 ft 5 in)
  • Wingspan: 15.6 m (51 ft 2 in)
  • Height: 3.1 m (10 ft 2.75 in)
  • Wing area: 33.34 m² (358.9 ft²)
  • Empty weight: 4,650 kg (10,252 lb)
  • Max takeoff weight: 6,750 kg (14,881 lb)
  • Powerplant: 2× Piaggio P.XI RC. 40 Radial, 1,000 hp (746 kW) each

Performance

Armament

  • Guns: Three 12.7 mm forward-firing machine guns, one 7.7mm rearward-firing machine gun
  • Bombs :Internal bomb load of 1,000 kg

[edit] References

  • Donald (ed.), D. (1997). The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Aerospace Publishing. ISBN 1-85605-375-X. 

[edit] Related content

 

Comparable aircraft

Fiat CR.25

Designation sequence

Breda Ba.65 - Breda Ba.88

 

 

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