The Breda Ba.201 was an Italian dive bomber designed during World War II, that never entered production.
That the
Regia Aeronautica struggled to develop an effective
bomber force was surprising to all concerned, as in the pre-war period the Regia Aeronautica was highly rated and performed well during the
Spanish Civil War and the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War. But its performance in the first months of World War II was poor, even failing to subdue
Malta with 1,000 bombers based less than 100 km (60 mi) away. One of the reasons was the lack of dive bombers and effective
ground-attack aircraft; the
Breda Ba.88 was a failure, and the
Caproni Ca.310 was so ineffective that it was replaced by the
Fiat CR.32 fighter bomber. Another failure was the
Savoia-Marchetti SM.85 dive bomber, phased out and replaced by the
Junkers Ju 87 Stuka even before the evaluation of its successor the
Savoia-Marchetti SM.86 was complete.
In 1939, a new contest for a dive bomber was called, requiring a single-engine aircraft with a maximum speed of 500 km/h (310 mph), or 450 km/h (280 mph) if twin-engined, capable of carrying 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs, with an endurance of 1,200 km (750 mi) with a single engine, or 2,400 km (1,490 mi) with two engines. There was only one twin-engine proposal, the
Piaggio P.122, which despite its all-metal construction, dorsal-wing
airbrakes, two
Piaggio P.XI R.C.40 engines giving a total of 1,491 kW (2,000 hp), and the lack of competitors, was considered unfit for service and was unbuilt.
Two single-engined types were proposed, the
Caproni Ca.355, a single seat derivative of the
Ca.335 light bomber that first flew in January 1941 and the
Breda Ba.201.