Mitsubishi's design team was led by Noboshiro Nakata and aided by Professor Baumann, a German engineer involved in a series of previous unsuccessful Mitsubishi designs. On the team there was also Jiro Horikoshi, who later designed the mighty A6M Zero.
The design team came out with a low-wing monoplane design which was never materialised, but this design didn't receive the approval of the Imperial Japanese Army, as they were required to design a parasol version so the pilot could have a better downwards visibility.
The resulting aircraft had a "boxy" look, with a fixed undercarriage and a parasol wing with the cockpit mounted behind the wing which was supported by struts and had no bracing wires. It received the denomination of Mitsubishi 1MF2 Hayabusa (Falcon). An effort to make its construction easy and cheap was also made after the Mitsubishi 2MR1 Tobi was rejected due to its high cost.
The fuselage of the Hayabusa was built around a metal frame. The wings were made out of wood and both fuselage and wings were fabric covered. It was powered by a Mitsubishi-built Hispano-Suiza 12-cylinder vee-type water-cooled engine which could yield a power of 450 to 600 hp. It was armed by two synchronised forward-firing 7.7 mm machine guns placed in the nose firing through the propeller blades.
The first exemplar was completed in May 1928 and was succesfully tested at Mitsubishi's own airfield in Kagamigahara, Nagoya. Shortly later it was taken to Tokorozawa Army Test Centre where it achieved a top speed of 272 km/h (169 mph) making it the fastest of the three aircraft submitted in the initial 1927 specification. However, the aircraft felt apart during diving tests with its test pilot, Sumitoshi Nakao becoming the first Japanese pilot escaping from an accident using a parachute.
This crash meant that the Hayabusa had no chances of winning the contest and, even if a second prototype was built shortly afterwards, it was only used for static structural tests and was eventually destroyed with the project having been cancelled. Nakajima and Kawasaki's designs failed too, but, eventually, Nakajima designed and successfully produced the Nakajima Type 91 which was an improved version of their submitted design.
Sources:
1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_mitsubishi_hayabusa_fighter.html
2. http://www.aviastar.org/air/japan/mitsubishi_1mf2.php
3. https://www.valka.cz/Micubisi-1MF2-Hajabusa-t41631
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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