In 1938 the Japanese Navy acquired from Germany an example of the Heinkel He 118 (4th prototype) and licence production rights.

The Dauntless was a Northrop design which originated in 1938, the company subsequently being absorbed into the Douglas Aircraft Corp, and the Northrop XBT-2 became the Douglas XSBD-1.

One of the most important dive-bombers in the Japanese arsenal in its campaign in the Pacific War, the prototype Aichi D3A, known by the Allies as the Val, was first flown in January 1938 with a 530 kw (710-hp) Nakajima Hikari I nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine.