Itoh Emi 3
| Company type | Aircraft |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aviation |
| Founded | 1917 |
| Founder | Otojiiro Otoh |
| Headquarters | Inage Beach , Japan |
| Products | Civil passenger seaplane |
The Itoh Emi 3 holds the distinction of being Japan's inaugural civil passenger seaplane, taking its first flight in 1917 and subsequently utilized for commercial exhibition flights and carrying passengers.
Design and development
By 1916, demonstration flights of Japanese aircraft were beginning to show commercial promise; however, there was a lack of appropriate seaplanes. To address this need, Otojiiro Otoh, who designed Japan's second commercial landplane—the Itoh Emi 1—created the Emi 3. The aircraft was finalized in August 1917.
Constructed with a wooden framework covered in fabric, the Emi 3 employed a two-bay biplane configuration. Its upper wing extended further in span and was supported by struts that leaned outward, with ailerons installed exclusively on the upper wings.
The powerplant consisted of an 80 hp water-cooled Hall-Scott V-8 engine connected to a two-bladed propeller. The design featured an open cockpit accommodating a single passenger positioned behind the engine, while the pilot's cockpit was located just behind the trailing edge of the upper wing. The fuselage was slim and flat-sided, equipped with a triangular vertical fin topped by a rudder shaped like a parallelogram.
The aircraft’s twin floats were mounted using single struts at the front and secured at the rear by a transverse W-shaped strut linking the fuselage to the lower wing.
Manufactured at Itoh’s facility on Inage Beach, subsequent flight tests demonstrated favorable performance characteristics, including stability and ease of control.
Operational history
Following its test flights, the Emi 3 was transported via rail to Osaka for demonstration purposes at nearby Nishinomiya. These paid public exhibitions proved commercially successful, establishing the aircraft as Japan's first floatplane designed to carry passengers. Itoh gave this sole model the name Seagull (Kamome, かもめ).