Fiat CR.25

The Fiat CR.25 was an Italian twin-engine reconnaissance-fighter aircraft built by Fiat that served in small numbers with the Regia Aeronautica during the Second World War. Forty were ordered after the Breda Ba.88 bomber failed operationally, later cut to ten, the two prototypes plus eight pre-production aircraft, and the type was then used as a reconnaissance plane and escort fighter. Nine aircraft flew in that role with the 173a Squadriglia Ricognizione Strategica Terrestre from Sicily, and pilots reported well of it, but although Fiat proposed resuming production no further aircraft were built. The prototype MM 332 was refurbished as a personnel transport for the Italian air attache in Berlin, and a more heavily armed CR.25quater with 1175 HP engines proposed in the spring of 1943 stayed on the drawing tables. The CR.25bis carried a crew of three, two Fiat A.74 radial piston engines of 630 kW each, and had a maximum speed of 460 km/h.