Mitsubishi 1MF

The Mitsubishi 1MF, the Navy Type 10 Carrier Fighter, was a Japanese carrier fighter of the 1920s flown by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1923 to 1930. Mitsubishi hired the British designer Herbert Smith, formerly of Sopwith, and a team of British engineers to design three carrier aircraft for the Navy. The 1MF was a single-seat, single-bay, all-wooden biplane with unequal-span wings, powered by a 224 kilowatt Hispano-Suiza 8 engine built under licence as the Mitsubishi Hi, and it first flew in October 1921. A 1MF made the first take-off and landing on the new carrier Hosho on 28 February 1923. Production of 138 aircraft of various versions continued until 1928, and it served on the carriers Hosho, Akagi and Kaga.