In 1934, the Imperial Japanese Navy issued a specification for a night reconnaissance aircraft, intended to shadow enemy ships at night, allowing submarines to be directed to their targets, and in a surface action, to spot for the guns of the fleet. This concept had been tested with the Aichi Experimental 6-Shi Night Reconnaissance Flying boat, which had proved unsuitable for service use. The aircraft was required to have good endurance and slow speed stability to help its crews in flying long missions at night, while it also needed to be suitable for catapulting from warships.[1]
Contracts were awarded to both Aichi and Kawanishi to design and build prototypes to meet the requirement. Kawanishi's design, with the company designation Kawanishi Type T was a single-engined tractor configuration biplane of all-metal construction. Its single-bay wings, which folded backwards for storage on ship, were based on those of the Kawanishi E7K reconnaissance floatplane, while the Nakajima Kotobuki radial engine was mounted forward of the top wing. The stressed-skin hull held a crew of three, with pilot and co-pilot sitting in an enclosed cockpit, while the gunner/observer sat in the nose, armed with a single flexibly mounted machine gun.[2]
The Type T made its maiden flight on 10 September 1934.[2] Testing proved unsuccessful, with water handling problems and poor stability in the air, and the Navy considered it unsuitable for the night reconnaissance role, instead ordering the competing Aichi design into production as the E10A.
Kawanishi converted the Type T to a utility transport, fitting it with a retractable beaching gear, and as such it entered service with the Navy as the Navy Type 94 Transport, but no production followed.