The Mitsubishi F1M ( Allied reporting name "Pete") was a Japanese reconnaissance

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

of World War II. It was the last

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

type of the Imperial Japanese Navy, with 944 built between 1936 and 1944. The Navy designation was "Type Zero Observation Seaplane" (零式水上観測機).

Design and development

In 1934, the Imperial Japanese Navy issued a specification to

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

, Aichi and Kawanishi for a replacement for its Nakajima E8N

s, which were used for short-ranged reconnaissance and observation missions from the Navy's warships.Francillon 1970, p. 358. Mitsubishi's design, the Ka-17, given the short system designation F1M1 by the Japanese Navy, was a small all-metal biplane powered by a single Nakajima Hikari 1 radial engine rated at , the same engine as used by Aichi's competing F1A. It had elliptical wings and great care had been taken to reduce drag, with the number of interplane struts and bracing wires minimised. The first of four F1M1s flew in June 1936.Francillon 1970, pp. 358–359.Green 1962, pp. 128–129. While the F1M1 had better performance than the Aichi aircraft, it had poor stability both on the water and in the air, so the aircraft was redesigned to resolve these problems. The wings were redesigned, with straight tapered leading and training edges and rigged with greater dihedral, and the vertical fin and rudder were enlarged. The aircraft's floats were enlarged to increase buoyancy, and the Hikari engine was replaced by a

Mitsubishi Zuisei The was a 14-cylinder, supercharged, air-cooled, two-row radial engine used in a variety of early World War II Japanese aircraft. It was one of the smallest 14-cyl. engines in the world and the smallest diameter Japanese engine. The Mitsubishi ...

14-cylinder radial, giving better forward visibility. As modified, the aircraft's handling characteristics were greatly improved, and the modified aircraft was ordered into production as the Navy Type 0 observation seaplane Model 11 (''rei-shiki kansokuki ichi-ichi-gata'', ''Reikan'' in short), with the short designation F1M2.Francillon 1970, pp 359, 361.Green 1962, p. 130. 940 series aircraft were built in total (342 by Mitsubishi and 598 by Sasebo Arsenal and 21st Arsenal) in addition to 4 prototypes (older publications present higher production figures, i.e., 1,016 or 1,118).Number of 940+4 is quoted by Wieliczko (2017), p. 19-21 (in Polish) derived from the latest Japanese research. The F1M2 had a maximum speed of 368 km/h (230 mph) and operating range of up to 1,072 km (670 mi) without external stores. It provided the Imperial Japanese Navy with a very versatile operations platform. The F1M was armed with a maximum of three 7.7 mm (.303 in) machine guns (two fixed forward-firing and one flexible rear-firing) with provision for two 60 kg (132 lb) bombs.

Operational history

The F1M was originally built as a catapult-launched reconnaissance float plane, specializing in gunnery spotting. The "Pete" took on a number of local roles including convoy escort, bomber,

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

, maritime patrol, rescue, transport, and anti-shipping strike; for example sinking Motor Torpedo Boat PT-34 on 9 April 1942. The type was also used as an area-defense fighter and engaged in aerial combat in the Aleutians, the Solomons and several other theaters. In the New Guinea front, it was often used in aerial combat with the Allied bombers and Allied fighters. In 1945, at the war's end,

Indonesians Indonesians (Indonesian: ''orang Indonesia'') are citizens or people originally from Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic coun ...

had taken some F1M2s to fight against the Dutch during the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during Aftermath of WWII, postw ...

Variants

; F1M1 : Prototypes. Four built. ; F1M2 : Two-seat reconnaissance floatplane for the Imperial Japanese Navy. ; F1M2-K : Two-seat training version.

Operators

; Indonesia * Indonesian Air Force ; Empire of Japan *

Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service The was the Naval aviation, air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The organization was responsible for the operation of naval aircraft and the conduct of aerial warfare in the Pacific War. The Japanese military acquired their first air ...

; Thailand * Royal Thai Navy

Specifications (F1M2)

References

External links

Notes

Bibliography

* Francillon, R.J. ''Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War''. London:Putnam, 1970. . * Green, William. ''War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Six: Floatplanes''. London: Macdonald & Co., (Publishers) Ltd., 1962. * {{Allied reporting names F1M, Mitsubishi Floatplanes World War II Japanese reconnaissance aircraft F1M Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1936