Its origins came from a 1939 specification for a replacement for the Aichi E13A, which at the time it had to be accepted by the IJNAS. The specification was called 14-shi and there were various disagreements between IJN members about the technical specifications of that replacement making many aircraft manufacturers reluctant to submit designs. However, in 1941 a new specification, called 16-shi was submitted by the IJNAS around the Aichi M-22 design which was already designed by Aichi engineers Kishiro Matsuo and Yasuhiro Ozawa. The first M-22 to serve with the IJNAS received the designation of Navy Experimental 16-shi Reconnaissance Seaplane and later the short designation of E16A1 and was completed in October 1942 with three prototypes built.
It was a conventional low-wing monoplane equipped with two floats and had the unusual feature for a seaplane, of being equipped with dive brakes placed in the front legs of the float struts so it could operate as a dive bomber in a secondary role.
After the 16-shi prototype, the first aircraft of the first production version, named E16A1 11 made its maiden flight in 1943 due to delays in the war and it wasn't until January 1944 that it began to be mass-produced with a total of 193 exemplars manufactured by Aichi's factory in Nagoya.
A second improved version, named E16A1 12 was produced from 1944 until the very end of the war both by Aichi and Japan Aircraft Manufacturing in Yokohama.
In June 1945 a third improved version, this time called E16A2 22 was being developed but it wasn't completed due to the end of the war. It was to be powered by a single Mitsubishi Kinsei 62 (Ha-33-62) air-cooled, fourten-cylinder two row radial engine, rated at 1539hp driving a three-bladed propeller.
The production versions were powered by the Mitsubishi Kinsei 51 and the Mitsubishi Kinsei 54 (the E16A1 11 and the E16A1 12 respectively) rated both of them at 1282hp and were armed with two forward firing Type 99-2 cannons in the wings, one flexible rearward-firing Type 2 machine gun in the observer post, for defensive purposes and they had a payload of 250kg (550lb) of bombs carried under the fuselage.
Apparently some of them were captured after the Japanese capitulation and were tested by the United States Army Air Force.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_E16A
2. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/87463
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