Fiat CR.25
Italian twin-engine reconnaissance-fighter aircraft, 1937

The Fiat CR.25 was an Italian twin-engine reconnaissance-fighter aircraft which served in small numbers for the Regia Aeronautica during World War II.
History
40 CR.25s were ordered (later reduced to ten, the two prototypes and other eight airplanes) after the operative failure of the apparently more promising Breda Ba.88 bomber. Later, it was decided to use the CR.25 as a reconnaissance plane and as escort fighter, with a total of nine aircraft (a prototype and the eight pre-production aircraft) for this role. It was used during the war by the 173a Squadriglia Ricognizione Strategica Terrestre (Strategic Land Reconnaissance Squadron), operating from Sicily. Despite positive reports from the pilots, and a proposal by Fiat to resume production, no further aircraft were produced.
The prototype MM 332, refurbished as personnel transport, was assigned to the Italian embassy in Berlin.
Variants
CR.25 : Twin-engined reconnaissance bomber aircraft, two prototypes built.
CR.25bis : Strategic reconnaissance aircraft, long-range escort fighter aircraft, eight preproduction aircraft built.
CR.25 D : The prototype MM (Matricola Militare) 332 aircraft, redesignated CR.25 D as a transport for the Italian air attaché in Berlin.
CR.25quater : The CR.25quater, was a more heavily armed version with a slight increase in wing area and 1175 HP engines proposed from FIAT in the spring of 1943. It remained on the drawing tables.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Fiat CR.25” is italian twin-engine reconnaissance-fighter aircraft, 1937. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Fiat, Italian and twin-engine, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 6, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q3744441. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1175 and 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fiat CR.25” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.