Breda Ba.25

Ba.25
Ba.25
Role Trainer aircraft
Manufacturer Società Italiana Ernesto Breda
First flight 1931
Introduction 1932
Primary users Regia Aeronautica
Royal Hungarian Air Force
Produced 1931-1938
Number built 753

The Breda Ba.25 was an Italian two-seat biplane trainer designed and built by the Breda company. It was the most widely used Italian basic trainer of the 1930s.

Contents

Design and development

The first flight took place near Milan in 1931. Initially designed as a single-seat aircraft, the prototype was later converted to a two-seat fuselage. Flight testing of the two-seat variant was successful, and in late 1931 Regia Aeronautica ordered a series of 100 Ba.25 training aircraft. The student and instructor sat in open tandem cockpits, although some versions had a single-bay cockpit.

The initial production order was completed by 1935, but demand for the aircraft increased and production for the Regia Aeronautica totalled 719 by the end of 1938. Many others were produced for export or for private use with different radial engines like the Alfa Romeo Lynx or Walter Castor.

Operational history

The Ba.25 remained in service of the Regia Aeronautica as training aircraft during World War II. Some of the aircraft were seized and handed over to the Allies. Paraguay bought four Breda Ba.25, one of them Ba.25Idro. They were used as primary trainers from 1939 to 1945. [1] [2]

Variants

There were many minor variants:

Ba.25
Main production version.
Ba.25/Lynx
Fitted with a 149 kW (200 hp) Alfa Romeo Lynx engine.
Ba.25/D.2
Fitted with a 179 kW (240 hp) Alfa Romeo D2 engine.
Ba.25/Mezzo-Asso
Fitted with a 164 kW (220 hp) Isotta-Fraschini Asso 200 engine.
Ba.25 Ridotto'
Reduced-span aerobatic version.
Ba.25-I (I for Idro)
Floatplane version (42 built, one for Paraguayan Naval Aviation)
Ba.26
Primary trainer with a longer wingspan and Walter NZ 120 engine, prototype only.
Ba.28
Export version with Piaggio-built Gnome-Rhône 7K engine for Norway, China and Ethiopia, among others.

Operators

 Afghanistan
 Austria
 Bolivia
 China
 Ecuador
 Ethiopia
 Hungary
 Italy
 Norway
 Paraguay

Specifications (Ba.25)

Data from [3]

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

References

Citations

  1. ^ Ba.25 entry at the Уголок неба website (Russian)
  2. ^ "La Contribución Italiana en la Aviación Paraguaya" by Antonio Luis Sapienza. Author's edition. Asunción. 2007
  3. ^ Jackson, Robert, The Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, Paragon, 2002. ISBN 0-75258-130-9
  4. ^ a b c d e Grey 1972, pp. 171c

Bibliography

  • Grey, C.G. (1972). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938. London: David & Charles. ISBN 0715 35734 4. 

External links