Loading bombs inside the ventral bay and servicing of a Breda 88 likely of the Regia Aeronauticas’s 19th Gruppo Autonomo Combattimento (19th Autonomous Combat Group) at Alghero-Fertilia, Sardinia, June 1940, for one of two raids over the Corsica attempted with this unsuccessful airplane. The photo highlight the contrast between the thin fuselage’s section of the aircraft, sign of the descent from a plane designed only for speed records and with other engine’s type, and the massive cowlings of the Piaggio radial engines. Note also the MG’s emplacement on the nose. All in all a plane’s shape which left puzzled in particular if compared with the well balanced and harmonized shape of other successful aircrafts of comparable category as the Bf 110. Victor Sierra

A plane’s shape which left puzzled

Instruments panel and flight controls inside the cockpit of an Italian three-engine transport plane Savoia-Marchetti SM.82 “Marsupiale” (Marsupial). Clearly visible control wheels, rudder pedals, hand throttles, compass, instruments “clock-type” and many other devices in good part today disappeared. An old-time flying perhaps “romantic”, but extremely demanding for the pilot. Now, with glass cockpit, FBW, HOTAS, GPS, computer, etcetera, the matter is most easy and the pilot’s workload is changed and notably reduced. The price? The pilot is losing the “physical” contact with his airplane and somebody, at flight safety organization level, beginning to worry… Victor Sierra

Old-time cockpit

Despite the glaring demonstration of his faults, the Regia Aeronautica attempted the use the Breda 88 also on an operational theater very difficult as the North Africa. Late July 1940 the 7th Gruppo Autonomo Combattimento (7th Autonomous Combat Group), Squadriglie 76th, 86th and 98th, was transferred from Campiglia (Leghorn) to Libya with 32 Breda 88 equipped with anti-sand filters. The North African atmosphere worsen the poor performances of the planes. With anti-sand filters fitted, a maximum horizontal speed of 250 km/h (155 mph, the original requirement was for a maximum speed of 530 km/h, 329 mph,!) was reported in many cases and the piloting was extremely dangerous. The Breda 88 was grounded until September. On 14 September 1940 was attempted a raid against the Sidi Barrani airfield, in British hands, 250 km from the departure base. with three aircraft with full crew (two men), full fuel, 1,500 shots for the MG and 250 kg of bomblets: take off impossible for one aircraft, impossible gain altitude for the other two and the leader decided the return at the base, but his plane was forced to fly straight for 20 minutes to Sidi Rezegh, at this moment in Italian hands. Same result from other attempts, one Breda 88 was shot down by “friendly fire”, the bomblet dispenser was delete, but the pilots reported very long take-off, vertical speed 1 or maximum 2 m/sec, maximum speed in altitude 260 km/h, 5 degrees of flap in level flight for a minimum margin over the stall speed, zero controllability: a total failure. Last attempt: fuel reduced of 400 kg, rear MG and second crewmember deleted, but with very little improvements. The Breda 88 “single-seat” of the 7th Gruppo was tested as interceptor (!), but by mid-November all the aircraft was grounded, phased out, and stripped of useful equipment, scattered around operational airfields as decoys for attacking aircraft. Some Breda 88’s airframes was discovered by the Allies troops after the final conquest of the Libya as this plane photographed at Benina by a serviceman of the USAAF’s 57th Fighter Group. An inglorious fate. Victor Sierra