The Breda Ba.46 was a three-engined Italian bomber transport, developed from a similar but lower-powered civil transport. It was designed in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
in the mid-1930s for colonial policing but not put into production.
Design and development
The Breda Ba.46, which first flew in 1934, was a military development of the
Ba.32 8-11 seat airliner from two years earlier. The Ba.46 was designed to fill a colonial policing rôle with an aircraft capable both of bombing and troop transportation. Troop/bombload mixtures could range from 12 men and 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of bombs of weights 100 kg (220 lb), 250 kg (550 lb) and 500 kg (1,100 lb), up to a maximum bombload of 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) without troops.
[
Both the Ba.32 and Ba.46 were three engine, ]cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
low wing monoplanes with fixed, conventional undercarriage
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...
s. Since the Ba.46's military equipment, chiefly bombs and defensive armament, raised the all-up weight by some 45%, it was re-engined with 650 hp (485 kW) Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...
-built Bristol Pegasus
The Bristol Pegasus is a British nine-cylinder, single-row, air-cooled radial aero engine. Designed by Roy Fedden of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, it was used to power both civil and military aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. Developed from t ...
radials which provided more than twice the power of the Ba.32's Pratt and Whitney Wasp Juniors. Wing span and area were also increased, by 12% and 22% respectively. Other dimensions remained the same. As a result, the Ba.46 was quicker both in level flight and particularly in the climb, reaching 5,000 m in 18 minutes rather than the B.32's 52 minutes.[
The cockpit of the Ba.46 was enclosed and the fuselage had side windows. There were four ]machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...
positions, two dorsal and two ventral. Bombs were stored internally, each weight in its own bay and above separate doors. The Ba.46 had a braced tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...
positioned on top of the fuselage and a single fin
A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...
. The wide-spaced mainwheels were spatted; the outer engines were faired with Townend rings, the central one remaining uncowled.[
The Breda Ba.46 made its first flight in 1934, by which time the company's focus had moved to more modern, retractable undercarriage and single-purpose bomber designs for European wars; there was no further development.][
]
Specifications
See also
References
{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation
Ba.046
1930s Italian bomber aircraft
Trimotors
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1934