The Breda A.3 was a prototype twin-engined

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

, designed by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda, as a night bomber in 1924.

Design and development

After entering the civil aviation market, in the early part of the 1920s, Breda envisaged its first military aircraft design, the A.3. biplane bomber, utilizing the

sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

configuration, also featuring a biplane tail and four engines arranged in tandem nacelles. Early test flights with the

SPA 6A The S.P.A. 6A was an Italian aero engine of the World War I era. It was a water-cooled inline six-cylinder engine that produced 220 horsepower (164 kW). Applications *Ansaldo A.1 Balilla *Ansaldo SVA * Bartel BM.5 * Breda A.2 * Breda A.3 ...

engines showed very modest performance, so it was decided to replace the four SPA 6As with two

Lorraine 12Db The Lorraine 12D, also referred to as Lorraine-Dietrich 12D, was a series of water-cooled V12 engines produced by the French company Lorraine-Dietrich. The first variant began production in 1917, and the engines were used to power bombers for the ...

V-12 engines, each yielding . However, this modification failed to translate into much better performance, and development of the A.3 was halted. Given the disappointing performance of the A.3, Breda conceived a new night bomber with better performance than the A.3 the

Breda A.8 The Breda A.8 was a prototype twin-engined biplane, designed by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda, as a night bomber in 1927. Design and development The A.8, designed as an improvement to the Breda A.3, was modified to rectify problems experienced ...

Specifications

References

{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation A.3 1920s Italian bomber aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1924