In 1921 Mitsubishi was awarded with a contract to produce three types of aircraft for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), a carrier-borne fighter, a carrier-borne reconnaissance aircraft and a carrier-borne torpedo-bomber. The company decided to hire Herbert Smith, after Sopwith Aviation Company went defunct one year earlier. He leaded the design team comprised of seven British engineers that would produce all those three aircraft.
This new fighter received the internal denomination of Mitsubishi 1MF1 and was a single bay biplane made out of wood with a fabric covering. The pilot sat in an open cockpit situated at the trailing edge of the upper wing. By October 1921 the first prototype was completed and, after testing, the aircraft was adopted by the IJN. The 1MF2 was a somewhat improved variant of the 1MF1 with the original Honeycomb radiator and a slightly modified wing. In the next version, the 1MF3, the Honeycomb radiator was replaced by Lamblin-type radiators mounted between the landing gear legs, which would also be used in the next variants of the airplane.
The 1MF2 was powered by an Hispano-Suiza 8F engine which delivered 296 hp of power and was armed with two fixed forward-firing 0.303 in Vickers Machine guns. A single prototype was completed in 1926 at Mitsubishi's factory in Nagoya. The 1MF3, was also powered by the Hispano-Suiza 8F and was also armed with two forward-firing 0.303 in Vickers Machine guns. It's not known how many 1MF3 were manufactured in total, but of the 128 1MF3/1MF4 fighters, the most numerous variant was the 1MF3, produced between 1923 and 1928.
Sources:
1. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_mitsubishi_navy_type_10_carrier_fighter.html
2. https://www.valka.cz/Micubisi-1MF2-t86239
3. https://www.valka.cz/Micubisi-1MF3-t33674
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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