Ha-40 Aircraft Engine

U.S. Navy. Via Francillon (1979).

The Kawasaki Ha-40 was also known as the Army Type 2 liquid-cooled engine or by the standardized designation, Kawasaki [Ha-60] 22. The Navy model was known as the Atsuta, after the name of the factory in which it was produced. It was a twelve-cylinder inverted "V" engine with a 130mm bore and 160mm stroke and a nominal power rating of 1100 horsepower (820 kW) based on the German DB 601A engine. Variants of this engine were used on the Ki-61 "Tony", the D4Y "Judy", and the M6A Seiran.

The engine was notoriously unreliable in both Japanese and German front-line service, and the Japanese redesigned both the Tony and the Judy to use less troublesome radial engines. On the other hand, the engine used fuel injection, making it insensitive to negative-G forces, which had proven to be an important tactical advantage during the Battle of Britain. A properly maintained Ha-40 was also able to maintain performance on marginal fuel; although it performed best with 120 octane gasoline, it could run on 100 octane gasoline, as was usually necessary by 1944.

References

Francillon (1979)
Gunston (2006)

Werneth (2008)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2006-2007, 2009, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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