Mitsubishi 1MF9

 

The Mitsubishi 1MF9, also known as Mitsubishi Experimental Taka-type Carrier Fighter, was a Japanese fighter aircraft of the 1920s decade that never made it past the prototype stage.

It was a single-engined, single-seat biplane intended to operate from the Imperial Japanese Navy's aircraft carriers. 

In April 1926, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) issued a specification for a replacement of their standard carrier fighter, the Mitsubishi 1MF (AKA Navy type 10 Carrier Fighter),which was designed back in 1921 by Herbert Smith. The specification was issued to Aichi, Mitsubishi and Nakajima and required the aircraft to stay afloat in the event of ditching in the sea. Mitsubishi tasked one of their designers, Joji Hattori (who worked with Smith on the 1MF), with the design of this new fighter. The resulting aircraft was the Experimental Taka-type (Taka means Falcon in Japanese) Carrier fighter or, according to Mitsubishi's internal designation, the 1MF9. It was a wooden single-bay biplane with fabric covering. It had a watertight fuselage, with a boat-shaped bottom, and jettisonable fixed conventional landing gear, to meet IJN's requirement. The leading-edge of the lower wing was watertight too in order to allow the aircraft to remain afloat. 

The fixed landing gear was chosen to be jettisonable because aircraft with fixed landing gear were very dangerous to ditch, as they can easily turn the aircraft over when the wheels touched the surface of the water. It also featured a fuel dumping system. 

The pilot sat in an open cockpit placed under the upper wing and it was powered by a single Mitsubishi Hi V-12 water-cooled engine which delivered 600 hp of power and drove a two-bladed propeller and was armed with two synchronized 0.303 in (7,7 mm) machine guns placed in the nose. 

Two prototypes were made the first of which flew for the first time in July 1927, making it the first Japanese-designed carrier-based fighter to fly, with the second one being completed in September. The 1MF9 was not successful, and the design proposed by Nakajima, a modified version of the British Gloster Gamecock fighter was chosen for production under the denomination of Nakajima A1N, in spite of the fact that Nakajima ignored the easy ditching requirement, which allowed for a lighter and more maneuverable aircraft.

However, the 1MF9 remains significant as it was the first carrier fighter designed entirely by a Japanese and, furthermore, it was the first Japanese aircraft to be equipped with split-flaps.

 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_1MF9

2. https://www.valka.cz/Micubisi-1MF9-Taka-t48296