Mitsubishi A5M

A5M
An A5M2b with arrestor hook and drop tank
General information
Type	Carrier-based fighter
Manufacturer	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Designer	Jiro Horikoshi
Primary user	Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
Number built	1,094
History
Introduction date	1936
First flight	4 February 1935
Retired	1945
Variants	Mitsubishi Ki-18 Mitsubishi Ki-33

The Mitsubishi A5M, formal Japanese Navy designation Mitsubishi Navy Type 96 Carrier-based Fighter (九六式艦上戦闘機), experimental Navy designation Mitsubishi Navy Experimental 9-Shi Carrier Fighter, company designation Mitsubishi Ka-14, was a WWII-era Japanese carrier-based fighter aircraft. The Type number is from the last two digits of the Japanese imperial year 2596 (1936) when it entered service with the Imperial Navy.

It was the world's first low-wing monoplane shipboard fighter to enter service^{[note 1]} and the predecessor of the famous Mitsubishi A6M "Zero". The Allied reporting name was Claude.
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