Mitsubishi 2MB1

The Mitsubishi 2MB1, service designation Army Type 87 Light Bomber, was a light bomber produced in Japan in the mid-1920s to equip the Imperial Japanese Army. It was developed in parallel with the unorthodox 2MB2 but took the conservative path, closely following the 2MT carrier-based torpedo bomber already built for the Navy. Like the 2MT it was a conventional two-bay biplane with tandem open cockpits and a fixed tailskid undercarriage. Mitsubishi swapped the 2MT Napier engine and side radiators for a Hispano-Suiza engine of about 336 kilowatts with a frontal radiator, and dropped naval features such as folding wings. The crew was a pilot and a gunner, and it carried up to 500 kg of bombs. It saw action in the early stage of the 1931 invasion of Manchuria, then proved obsolete and moved to training duties.