History:

The Breda BA.25 was designed and developed by Societa Italiana Ernest Breda in Italy in 1931 as a basic trainer. 753 examples were produced, the majority being supplied to the Italian Air Force for training duties, but a number of early production aircraft were supplied to the Hungarian Air Force. Production took place between 1931 and 1938.

The prototype was first flown in 1931 as a single-seater but was later converted to two-seat configuration. Initial order for the Regia Aeronautica was for 100 aircraft. It eventually received orders for 719 by late 1938. A number of engines were installed in export aircraft, including the Alpha Romeo Lynx seven cylinder air-cooled radial engine, a licence-built variant of the Armstrong Siddeley Lynx, and the Walter Castor, also a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial engine.

Variants of the BA.25 included the BA.25 Lynx, BA.25.D2 with a 179 kw (240 hp) Alpha Romeo AR.D.2 engine; BA.25/Mezzo-Assoc with a 164 kw (220 hp) Isotta-Fraschine Asso 200 engine; the BA.25 Ridotto with reduced wingspan; BA.25-I floatplane, 42 of which were built, a number being supplied to Paraguay. The BA.26 variant had a Walter NZ.120 engine; and the BA.28 export model for Norway, China and Ethiopia had the Gnome Rhone 7K engine of 272 kw (365 hp). Examples were also supplied to Afghanistan, Austria, Bolivia, Ecuador and Spain.

During the military campaign in North Africa in World War II Australian, British and South African Air Force units sought to locate and restore to airworthiness Axis military aircraft and in this regard Nos 3 and 450 Squadrons RAAF competed to locate such aircraft. One Breda BA.25-I (serial unknown) was located and returned to airworthiness by No 3 Squadron, this being an aircraft converted to single-seat configuration and fitted with floats. It seems it was applied with the Squadron code ‘CV’ but only operated for a short period and was then abandoned due to lack of spares.