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 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 original ...

, 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 SPA 6A is an Italian water-cooled inline six-cylinder aero engine of the World War I era. The SPA 6A is mostly known for its use in the Ansaldo SVA high speed reconnaissance aircraft. Design and development The Societa Piemontese Automobi ...

engines showed very modest performance, so it was decided to replace the four SPA 6As with two Lorraine 12Db 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.

Specifications

References

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