Società Italiana Ernesto Breda (), more usually referred to simply as Breda, was an Italian mechanical manufacturing company founded by Ernesto Breda in Milan in 1886.

History

The firm was founded by Ernesto Breda in Milan in 1886. It originally manufactured locomotives and other railway machinery, but later branched out into armaments and

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

. Occasionally, not continuously, the company also built

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

es. In 1935, it acquired the railway division of

Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali or OFM was an Italian railway and rolling stock manufacturing company based at Naples. History In 1915, Ing Nicola Romeo and Co Ltd, owned by Nicola Romeo, bought Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali and two other fa ...

and, soon afterwards, the aircraft division of the same company. Breda-designed machine guns such as the

Breda Model 30 The ''Fucile Mitragliatore Breda modello'' 30 was the standard light machine gun of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. Design The Breda 30 was rather unusual for a light machine gun. It was fed from a fixed magazine attached to the righ ...

and

Breda Model 37 The Mitragliatrice Breda calibro 8 modello 37 (commonly known as the Breda mod. 37 or simply Breda 37) was an Italian Medium machine gun produced by Breda and adopted in 1937 by the Royal Italian Army. It was the standard heavy machine gun for t ...

were standard issue weapons for the Royal Italian Army during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the

Italian Invasion of Albania The Italian invasion of Albania (April 7–12, 1939) was a brief military campaign which was launched by the Kingdom of Italy against the Albanian Kingdom in 1939. The conflict was a result of the imperialistic policies of the Italian prime m ...

and

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. At the peak of its wartime production, the company had 26,000 employees. By 1954, its workforce had been reduced to around 8,000. In 1962, Breda was nationalised as part of EFIM, but was

liquidated Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistr ...

in the 1990s. The train and tram manufacturing division fused with Ansaldo to form

AnsaldoBreda Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A. is a multinational rolling stock manufacturer company based in Pistoia, Italy. Formerly AnsaldoBreda S.p.A., a subsidiary of state-owned Finmeccanica, the company was sold in 2015 to Hitachi Rail of Japan. After the ...

, the armaments division became an independent entity as

Breda Meccanica Bresciana Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

, as did the research division as Istituto Scientifico Breda.

Products

Aircraft Products

* A.2 * A.4 * A.7 * A.8 * A.9 * A.10 * A.14 * Ba.15 * Ba.19 * CC.20 * Ba.25 * Ba.26 * Ba.27 * Ba.28 * Ba.32 * Ba.33 * Ba.39 * Ba.42 * Ba.44 * Ba.46 * Ba.64 * Ba.65 * Ba.75 * Ba.79S * Ba.82 * Ba.88 * Ba.92 * Ba.201 * Ba.205 * BP.471 * BZ.308 * BZ.309 *

Tebaldi-Zari The Tebaldi-Zari was an Italian fighter prototype of 1919. The Breda company later acquired the rights to it. Design and development An engineer named Tebaldi designed the Tebaldi-Zari, which was a single-seat wooden sesquiplane with heavily ...

Rolling stock products

Locomotives

South African Class 15CA 4-8-2 {{Infobox locomotive , name = South African Class 15CA 4-8-2 , image = SAR Class 15CA 2802 (4-8-2).JPG , alt = , caption = No. 2802 at Esselen Park, 21 September 2009 , hatnote = ♠ With ...

SEK class Μα SEK (''Sidirodromoi Ellinikou Kratous'', Hellenic State Railways) class Μα (or class Ma; Mu- alpha) was a class of 2-10-2 steam locomotives built by Ansaldo and Breda in 1953. They were numbered Μα 1001-1020. The Μα locomotives were the ...

* E.330 * D.341 * D.345 * D.443 * E.424 * E.428 * E.636 *

HŽ series 1061 The HŽ series 1061 was a 6-axle articulated electric locomotive series that was used by Croatian Railways ( hr, hrvatske željeznice, HŽ). In Slovenia it is known as ''SŽ series 362''. This locomotive, built jointly by Ansaldo and Breda, is de ...

DMU and EMU

ETR 200 The ETR 200 (for ''" Elettro Treno Rapido 200"'', in Italian meaning "Rapid Electric Train ''series'' 200") is an Italian electric multiple unit (EMU) introduced in 1936. On 20 July 1939 the ETR 200 number 12 obtained the world record average spee ...

* ETR 240 * ETR 300 * FNM Class E.750

Metro

* Washington Metro 2000-Series, 3000-Series, 4000-series * Breda A650

Tram and light rail

* ATM Class 1500 * ATM Class 4600 and 4700 * LRVs for

RTA Rapid Transit RTA Rapid Transit (generally known as The Rapid) is a rapid transit, light rail, and bus rapid transit system. The system is owned and operated by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA). The system serves Cleveland and surround ...

(Cleveland) * MBTA Green Line Type 8 (production continued after merger) * LRV2 and LRV3 for

Muni Metro Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 15 ...

(San Francisco)

Trolleybuses

The production of

es was a small part of Breda's output, carried out through its subsidiary ''Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie'' ( it), and was not under way continuously. Between 1936 and 1940, the company built a total of 28 trolleybuses, most for the Rome system but including six for

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

. At various times between 1938 and 1956, more trolleybuses were built, but totalling only 16. Production resumed in 1988. Almost all of Breda's customers for trolleybuses were Italian trolleybus systems, but a notable exception was an order of 236

dual-mode bus A dual-mode bus is a bus that can run independently on power from two different sources, typically electricity from overhead lines like a trolleybus or from batteries like a hybrid bus, alternated with conventional fossil fuel (generally diesel ...

es that Breda built for the Seattle system between 1988 and 1991.

References

External links

Treccani.it BREDA, Ernesto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breda, Societa Italiana Ernesto AnsaldoBreda Milan motor companies Italian brands Manufacturing companies of Italy Trolleybus manufacturers Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Italy Manufacturing companies established in 1886 1886 establishments in Italy Conglomerate companies of Italy Bus manufacturers of Italy Electric vehicle manufacturers of Italy