Roughly equivalent to the American Curtiss SOC Seagull observation float biplane, the smaller Mitsubishi F1M was of more compact and neater design, its development starting about two years later in 1934. First flown in June 1936, the F1M1 embodied all the efforts of its designers to achieve an exceptionally clean aerodynamic shape.
The giant superbattleships Musashi and Yamato each carried several 'Petes' to spot for their 460mm main gun armament at the time of the Marianas battles, but none was used in earnest; instead the Musashi succumbed to American bombs and torpedoes in the Sibuyan Sea; the Yamato, bent on a suicide mission to Okinawa, followed her to the bottom on 7 April 1945.
