Mitsubishi A5M

The Mitsubishi A5M, known to the Imperial Japanese Navy as the Type 96 Carrier-based Fighter and to the Allies as Claude, was a Second World War era carrier fighter and the first low-wing monoplane shipboard fighter to enter service anywhere. A team under Jiro Horikoshi, who later designed the A6M Zero, built it as an all-metal low-wing aircraft with a fixed undercarriage, because the small speed gain of retractable gear did not seem worth its weight. The first prototype flew on 4 February 1935 and easily exceeded the Navy specification. Entering service in 1937, it fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War and remained in front-line use until the Zero replaced it. About 1,094 were built in all variants, including a two-seat A5M4-K trainer.