Soon after it received a contract from the Imperial Japanese Navy to design, develop and manufacture the three types of aircraft that should operate from aircraft carriers (Akagi and Kaga), a fighter, a torpedo bomber and a reconnaissance aircraft. To design and produce those airplanes, they hired Herbert Smith, former designer at Sopwith Aviation Company who designed the famous Sopwith Camel, to assist in the design of those aircrafts, he brought Jack Hyland to Japan plus a team of other six British engineers.
The fighter designed by them received the company designation of Mitsubishi 1MF1 (Mitsubishi Fighter 1) and received the official designation of Navy Type 10 Carrier Fighter (referring to the year it was designed, 1921, the 10th year of the Taisho period) by the Imperial Japanese Navy and flew for the first time in October 1921.
It was a single-seat, single-bay biplane with unequal span wings and made entirely out of wood. It was powered by a single 300hp Mitsubishi Hi engine which was a license-built Hispano-Suiza 8. It was fitted with a claw-type arrestor gear to be used with British-style fore and aft arrestor cables and was armed with two Vickers 0.303in placed in the upper fuselage decking.
Only one prototype was built of the 1MF1 variant, as they quickly switched to other engines. However this first prototype (of which only one exemplar was built) was accepted into service with the Navy and served until 1927 operating from the Akagi carrier first and then being relegated to the shore base of Kasumigaura, North-East of Tokyo.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_1MF
2. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/33675
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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