Mitsubishi No. 2 (I.J.A. 2MB2) prototype light bomber, c. 1925.

“The Mitsubishi 2MB2 or Experimental Washi-type Light Bomber was a single-engined biplane light bomber of the 1920s. A single example was built for the Imperial Japanese Army, but no production followed.

“In 1925, the Imperial Japanese Army issued a specification for a single-engined bomber, requesting responses from Mitsubishi, Nakajima and Kawasaki. To design an aircraft to meet this requirement, Mitsubishi hired the German designer Alexander Baumann, a professor at Stuttgart University, and former designer of Riesenflugzeug for Zeppelin-Staaken to supervise the design team, with Nobushiro Nakata as chief designer.

“The prototype bomber, known as the 2MB2, or Experimental Washi-type Light Bomber (Washi, eagle), was completed in December 1925. While it demonstrated good performance, and was rated as superior to the evaluated prototypes from Kawasaki and Nakajima (both were modified designs of existing foreign models, unlike the domestically-designed 2MB2), the 2MB2 was considered to too expensive to build owing to its complex structure and the design was rejected.

“The Army instead adopted a modified version of Mitsubishi’s Navy Type 13 Carrier Attack Aircraft as the Army Type 87 Light Bomber (company designation 2MB1), despite a poorer performance and bomb load.”

–Wikipedia

Performance

Crew: 2
Maximum speed: 210 km/h (130 mph, 110 kn) at sea level
Endurance: 3 hr
Service ceiling: 6,000 m (20,000 ft)