Mitsubishi 2MR8

In 1927 Mitubishi enlisted the help of German designer Baumann to meet an Imperial Japanese Army requirement for a new reconnaissance aircraft. The resulting Mitsubishi 2MR1 Tobi two-seat sesquiplane was a grotesque aircraft, which performed only slightly worse than Baumann's next design, the 1MF2 Hayabusa parasol-wing single-seat fighter of a year later. A third unsuccessful type was the 2MR7 short-range reconnaissance biplane of 1928.

In 1930, however, three 2MR8 parasol-wing reconnaissance monoplanes were built and tested successfully. Of mixed construction, they had fixed wide-track divided landing gear and were powered by a 354kW Mitsubishi Type 92 radial engine. Accepted by the army, the 2MR8 went into service in 1932 as the Type 92 Reconnaissance Aircraft. Production terminated in 1933 with the 230th machine. Maximum speed was 220km/h, wing span 12.75m, and maximum take-off weight 1770kg. The Type 92 was normally armed with a fixed forward-firing 7.7mm machine-gun mounted above the wing centre-section, with single or twin guns of the same calibre on a ring mounting over the observer's cockpit.

The Type 92 saw active service in Manchuria with the air battalions (later air wings) of the army's Kanto Command Air Corps between 1933 and 1936. A civil version of the Type 92 was used as a survey aircraft by Japanese National Railways. Powered by a 298kW Mitsubishi A-5 engine, it was registered J-AARA and differed externally from the military aircraft in having a glazed canopy over the crew cockpits and spat-type main wheel fairings.