[2] Mitsubishi Nainenki had been established in Nagoya in 1920, and signed a technology agreement with Junkers in 1925.
In 1932, Mitsubishi Aircraft was among the companies that involved in a consolidation process catalysed by the Imperial Japanese Navy's Aviation Arsenal.
The Navy launched a three-year program to have the manufacturers develop certain types of aircraft under competition.
The famous Mitsubishi A6M ("Zero") fighter was an improvement of the A5M and had a maximum speed of 500 km/h (310 mph).
It had a prominent role to play in the upsurge of aircraft production in Japan, which shot up from 400 in 1931, to 4,800 in 1941 and peaked at 24,000 in 1944.