 Yamashiro was briefly fitted with an aircraft flying @-@ off platform on Turret No. 2 in 1922 . She successfully launched Gloster Sparrowhawk and Sopwith Camel fighters from it , becoming the first Japanese ship to launch aircraft . When she was modernized in the 1930s , a catapult and a collapsible crane were fitted on the stern , and both ships were equipped to operate three floatplanes , although no hangar was provided . The initial Nakajima E4N2 biplanes were replaced by Nakajima E8N2 biplanes in 1938 and then by Mitsubishi F1M biplanes from 1942 on . 
