Ba.65 Royal Iraqi AF, 5 Sqd, Al Rashid AB, 1941 - Aircraft in Foreign Service GB

**vikingBerserker** · 11-16-2011 10:22 PM

User name: VikingBerserker
Name: David
Category: 2, Intermediate
Kit: Special Hobby - Breda Ba.65 A-80
Scale: 1/48th.
Accessories: None

Ba.65 Royal Iraqi AF, 5 Sqd, Al Rashid AB, 1941 - Aircraft in Foreign Service GB-ba65.jpg

My entry (and one I am determined to complete this time!) is an aircraft that I've always wanted to build since seeing a picture of it oh so many years ago. I'd been able to find it in 1/72 scale but now I have it in 1/48!

Evolved from the Ba.64, the Ba.65 was also a single-seat, all-metal, cantilever low-wing monoplane with aft-retracting main undercarriage. Initially intended as an interceptor and attack-reconnaissance plane the Ba.65 carried wing-mounted armament of two 12.7mm and two 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns, and provided internal stowage for a 440-pound bomb-load in addition to external ordnance that could total 2,200 pounds. The prototype, which was first flown in 9/35, was powered by a Fiat A80 RC41 18-cylinder, twin-row radial engine with a takeoff rating of 1,000 hp. Production of the Ba.65 began in 1936, the initial model having a Gnôme-Rhône 14K 14-cylinder radial of 900 hp. The single-seat Gnôme- Rhône version of the Ba.65, of which 81 were built, attained a maximum speed of 258 mph at 16,400 feet and 217 mph at sea level. Maximum cruising speed was 223 mph at13,125 feet, and range was 466 miles with a 440-pound bomb load. The service ceiling was 25,590 feet.

While the Ba.65 was being blooded over Spain, a two-seat version, the Ba-65bis, had been developed, and export orders for the Breda assault monoplane had been solicited. Fifteen aircraft with 14K engines were ordered in 1937 by the Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIAF), 13 of which were Ba.65bis two-seat planes equipped with a hydraulically operated Breda L dorsal turret mounting a 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine gun; the remaining two were dual-control trainers.

The Ba.65′s ill-starred combat career was briefly revived on 5/2/41, when hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s anti-British, pro-German chief of the National Defense Government. Among the Iraqi aircraft that attacked the RAF base at Habbaniya that day were some of the 13 Ba.65bis machines that had been delivered to Iraq in 1938 and assigned to No. 5 Squadron, RIAF. Although three British aircraft were destroyed on the ground in the initial strike, subsequent Iraqi sorties were disrupted by Habbaniya’s defenders. Later that same day, Flying Officer J.M. Craigie, flying a Gladiator of Habbaniya’s ad hoc fighter flight, was about to land when he saw a Ba.65 coming in to bomb the field. Pulling up, he fired at the Breda and forced it to break off its attack, although he failed to bring it down. Over the next few weeks, damage from aerial opposition and ground fire, combined with inadequate maintenance facilities and an insufficient supply of spare parts, eventually grounded all the Iraqi aircraft. Despite some desultory aid from the Germans and Italians, the Iraqis failed to drive out the British, who were soon invading Iraq. On May 31, an armistice was signed ending the Iraqi revolt and the fighting career of the Breda Ba.65. Comando Supremo

Photos from Iraqi Armed Forces Forums and Iraqi air force