Description

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The mid-1930s saw the ever increasing numbers of fast monoplane fighters entering service with many of the world's air forces. This was not the case in naval aviation, where biplane designs still reigned supreme. One exception to the rule was the French Navy with its aircraft carrier Bearn and embarked Dewoitine D.371T1 fighters in parasol configuration, hardly a promising design for carrier-based aircraft. Prevalence of biplanes among naval fighters of the time was due to very strict limitations on landing speeds imposed by small flight decks of contemporary aircraft carriers. It was in the middle of that decade, in 1935, that the Mitsubishi A5M entered the stage - a low-wing, monoplane carrier-based fighter, which set new standards for aircraft of its class. Having said that, the Claude wasn't the first fighter in this configuration designed for the Imperial Japanese Navy .