Design
The Aichi E16A floatplane was designed to be a successor to the Aichi E13A. In October 1940 Kishiro Matsuo and Yasushiro Ozawa started design work on the Aichi AM-22 and in January 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy put out the 16-Shi specification which was basically the AM-22 design. In July 1941 the requirements were modified and the AM-22 became the E16A1.
The E16A was of an all metal construction except for the wing tips and the tail, which were wood.
Stop Gap Dive Bomber
The E16A was modified by installing hydraulically operated dive brakes to allow it to dive bomb with one or two 500 lb / 250 kg bombs.