Breda non così buono

The Italian designed Breda Ba.27 is a sad tale for an aircraft. 

As some air forces around the world were making attempts to move away from the tried and tested biplanes into the monoplane era, Società Italiana Ernesto Breda put forth a low-wing braced monoplane of mixed wing construction materials and fixed landing gear to the Regia Aeronautica for consideration.

The first prototype Ba.27 was tested and evaluated by the Regia Aeronautica in 1933 and was met with generally unsatisfactory reviews. Lackluster performance and excessive vibration, especially while turning/banking were the two biggest concerns. The test pilots of the day favored the inservce Fiat CR.32 biplane over the prototype, so the Ba.27 went back to the drawing boards for revisions.

An extensive redesign of the aircraft began, first with replacing the wooden two blade propeller with a three blade, variable pitch unit. Next, the fuselage was rounded off more and the open cockpit was moved up and forward to improve visibility. The corrugated skin was discarded and replaced with smooth sheet metal and the mixed construction wing was now all metal, earning it's name, Metallico.

The Regia Aeronautica tested and evaluated this second prototype in June 1934 (some sources claim earlier flights in May) and despite Breda's best efforts, the appraisal was only a little more positive over the first aircraft. The Regia Aeronautica would retain the second prototype for extended testing until it was lost in 1937.

With a lost of Italian interest in the aircraft, the Breda Ba.27 was demonstrated to the Norwegian Air Force, but no interest or sales came from that venture. In November of 1934, it was shown at the Salon de l'Aeronautique in Paris, but once again, no buyers.

However, in 1935, an order for the Breda Ba.27 was finally sold to the Chinese nationalist government for 18 aircraft, of which 11 were mysteriously delivered.

Only one account of the Breda Ba.27 in combat in China has been recorded and even then, it is in dispute by some.

Over Nanking on October 12 1937, a mixed formation of 20 Japanese aircraft encountered what they believed to be a lone group of 7 Mitsubishi A5M fighters operating in the area. As the two groups closed on each other, the mistaken fighters, who the Japanese claimed were Ba.27's in Chinese National markings, engaged them. The Japanese suffered the loss of 3 A5M's and were turned back, it is unknown what the Chinese casualties were.

Some modern researchers believe the Japanese formation were attacked by the very similar looking Boeing Type 281, the export version of the P-26 Peashooter. Others claimed if the action did take place, as recorded by Japanese pilots who were involved in the event, the planes would have been piloted by Italians, since they would have been better trained for such an action. The truth remains evasive to the this day.

Be it through training or combat, the Breda Ba.27 was in operational service in China until 1938, no examples are known to exist today.