was a Japanese

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...

which produced several designs for the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

. After the war, the company was reorganized as Aichi Machine Industry Co., Ltd (愛知機械工業) where they made small ''

kei Kei may refer to: People * Kei (given name) * Kei, Cantonese for Ji (surname), Ji(姫) * Kei, Cantonese for Qi (surname), Qi(奇, 祁, 亓) * Shō Kei (1700–1752), king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom * Kei (singer) (born 1995), stage name of South Kor ...

'' cars until 1966 when they were integrated into Nissan and developed the

Nissan Sunny The is an automobile built by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1966 to 2006. In the early 1980s, the brand changed from Datsun to Nissan in line with other models by the company. Although production of the Sunny in Japan ended in 2006, the na ...

and

Nissan Vanette The is a cabover van and pickup truck produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1978 until 2011. The first two generations were engineered by Nissan's Aichi Manufacturing Division for private, personal ownership, with the last two genera ...

Aichi Watch and Electric Manufacturing

The company was established in 1898 in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most po ...

as Aichi Tokei Denki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha (Aichi Watch and Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd.). Aircraft production started in 1920,Mikesh and Abe 1990, p. 61. and the company relied initially on technical assistance from Heinkel, which influenced some of their designs. Later, with the prodding and support of the

, the company started making seaplanes using technology imported from

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

in the UK. During the inter-war period, Aichi was the beneficiary of technology transferred from Heinkel Flugzeugwerke of Germany. At the time, a team from the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

occasionally visited German aircraft manufacturers to monitor the ban on military aircraft research and production. A Japanese military attache who was a member of the monitoring team, let Heinkel know, confidentially and in advance, of the planned visits. Heinkel thus succeeded in continuing its design on the aircraft ordered by Aichi Aircraft without being spotted. In

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 ...

the aircraft division was spun off as Aichi Kokuki Kabushiki Kaisha (Aichi Aircraft Co., Ltd.).

Aircraft

Company designations

AB - "Aichi Biplane" * AB-1 - 1929 four-seat biplane/floatplane airliner * AB-2 - 1930 reconnaissance floatplane prototype * AB-3 - 1932 carrier-based reconnaissance floatplane based on the AB-2 * AB-4 - 1932 night reconnaissance flying boat * AB-5 - Japanese-built version of the Heinkel He 62 * AB-6 - 1933 reconnaissance floatplane prototype, lost to the Kawanishi E7K * AB-7 - company designation for the E8A * AB-8 - 1932 carrier-based attack bomber prototype, lost to the Kugisho B3Y * AB-9 - company designation for the D1A * AB-10 * AB-11 - version of D1A with retractable landing gear, not built * AB-12 - company designation for the E10A * AB-13 - company designation for the F1A * AB-14 - company designation for the E11A AM - "Aichi Monoplane" * AM-7 - planned monoplane version of E8A * AM-10 - planned monoplane version of F1A * AM-15 - light sport plane (project only) * AM-16 - planned night reconnaissance flying boat; design resembled the Grumman G-21 * AM-17 - company designation for the D3A * AM-18 - company designation for the E12A * AM-19 - company designation for the E13A * AM-20 - company designation for the C4A * AM-21 - company designation for the H9A * AM-22 - company designation for the E16A * AM-23 - company designation for the B7A * AM-24 - company designation for the M6A * AM-25 - company designation for the S1A * AM-26 - company designation for the B8A

Fighter

* Type H Carrier Fighter - 1926 carrier-based floatplane fighter; license-built Heinkel HD 23

Torpedo bomber

* B7A 流星 ''Ryūsei'' (Shooting Star) - 'Grace' 1941 torpedo/dive bomber * B8A ''Mokusei'' (Wooden Star) - torpedo bomber (project only)

Dive bomber

* D1A/D2A - 'Susie' 1934 dive bomber, based on the Heinkel He 66 * D3A - 'Val' 1940 carrier-based dive bomber

Reconnaissance aircraft

* Type 15-Ko Reconnaissance Seaplane - 1925 prototype reconnaissance seaplane, lost to the Nakajima E2N * Type 2 Two-seat Reconnaissance Seaplane - 1928 reconnaissance floatplane; modified Heinkel HD 25 * Type 2 Single-seat Reconnaissance Seaplane - 1928 reconnaissance floatplane; Japanese-built Heinkel HD 26 * C4A - carrier-based high-speed reconnaissance aircraft (project only) * E3A - 1929 reconnaissance floatplane, improved Heinkel HD 56 * E8A - 1933 reconnaissance floatplane prototype, lost to the Nakajima E8N * E10A - 'Hank' 1936 reconnaissance biplane flying boat * E11A - 'Laura' 1937 maritime patrol biplane flying boat * E12A - 1937 reconnaissance floatplane prototype * E13A - 'Jake' 1941 reconnaissance floatplane * E16A 瑞雲 ''Zuiun'' (Auspicious Cloud) - 'Paul' 1942 reconnaissance floatplane * F1A - 1940 reconnaissance floatplane prototype, lost to the Mitsubishi F1M

Flying boat

* H9A - 1940 flying boat trainer

Trainer

* E13A1-K - floatplane trainer version of E13A * M6A1-K 南山 ''Nanzan'' (South Mountain) - 1945 prototype trainer version of M6A

Special purpose

* M6A 晴嵐 ''Seiran'' (Clear Sky Storm) - 1945 submarine-launched dive/torpedo bomber

Night fighter

* S1A 電光 ''Denko'' (Bolt of Light) - 1944 night fighter prototype * E13A1a-S/E13A1b-S - night-fighter versions of E13A

Engines

Aichi AC-1 __NOTOC__ The Aichi AC-1 was an experimental nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. In 1929, it was used to power the newly designed Aichi AB-2, a catapult-launched reconnaissance seaplane. The AB-2 with its AC-1 engine is noted for being the ...

- 1929 experimental nine-cylinder radial engine *

Aichi Atsuta The Aichi AE1A Atsuta (Japanese: or ) was a Japanese licensed version of the German Daimler-Benz DB 601A 12-cylinder liquid-cooled inverted-vee aircraft engine. The Atsuta powered only two models of Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) air ...

(アツタ or 熱田) - licensed copy of the

Daimler-Benz DB 601A The Daimler-Benz DB 601 was a German aircraft engine built during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Bf 110, and many others. Approximately 19,000 601's were produced bef ...

inverted V12 *

Aichi Ha-70 The Aichi Ha-70 was a compound engine composed of two 1,700 hp 12-cylinder liquid-cooled inverted V-12 Aichi Atsuta aircraft engines mounted to a common gearbox. The only aircraft powered by the Ha-70 was the Yokosuka R2Y, an Imperial Japa ...

- two Atsuta engines coupled together

Aichi Machine Industry

After the war, the company was reorganized, manufacturing ''

'' cars under the Cony brand name in Japan. Its current descendant, Aichi Kikai Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha (Aichi Machine Industry Co., Ltd.), is integrated with the Nissan corporate structure.

Automotive contributions

Nissan engines

Nissan A engine The Nissan A series of internal combustion gasoline engines have been used in Datsun, Nissan and Premier brand vehicles. Displacements of this four-stroke engine family ranged from 1.0-liter to 1.5-liter and have been produced from 1967 till 20 ...

* HR15DE / HR16DE * CR12DE / CR14DE * QG13DE / QG15DE / QG16DE / QG18DE

Transmissions

*FS6R31 - with synchronous control. *F30A / F50A / F70A *MFA60 / MFA80 *W60A *FS5R30A *MRA70 *GR6

Vehicles manufactured

Nissan Cherry The Datsun Cherry (チェリー), known later as the Nissan Cherry, was a series of subcompact cars which formed Nissan's first front-wheel drive supermini model line. The Cherry featured the front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The Cherry li ...

Nissan Serena The is a minivan manufactured by Nissan, joining the slightly larger Vanette. It was also marketed by Suzuki as the between 2007 and 2022. The car was engineered by Nissan's Aichi Manufacturing Division and launched in 1991 as a compact pass ...

(Largo) *

Cony Guppy The Cony Guppy is a small pickup truck manufactured by Aichi. The vehicle had suicide doors and rotating amber beacons on the B-pillar. The brake lights were tiny and circular. The engine, which rests behind the seats, is a two-valve, 199 cc ...

, a two-seat microcar *

Cony 360 Wide The Cony 360 was a kei car, truck, and van made by Aichi Kokuki. Overview The 360 (referring to the 354 cc engine) had a two-cylinder engine producing 18 horsepower. Originally introduced as a two-door sedan, it was also built in light panel van ...

, a cabover ''

keitora A kei truck, kei-class truck, or Japanese mini truck is a mini truck, a tiny but practical pickup truck available in rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive versions, built to satisfy the Japanese '' keijidōsha'' (軽自動車, "light vehicle") st ...

''/

Microvan A microvan is a van or minivan which is within the Japanese kei car classification or similar, and is smaller than a mini MPV. In China, these vehicles are nicknamed ''mian bao che'' ("bread-loaf vehicle") because of their shape.

/minitruck * , predecessor to Cony 360 *

Cony 360 The Cony 360 was a kei car, truck, and van made by Aichi Kokuki. Overview The 360 (referring to the 354 cc engine) had a two-cylinder engine producing 18 horsepower. Originally introduced as a two-door sedan, it was also built in light panel van ...

a passenger kei car

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Mikesh, Robert C. and Shorzoe Abe. ''Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941''. London: Putnam Aeronautical, 1990. . * Odagiri, Hiroyuki. ''Technology and Industrial Development in Japan''. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1996. .

External links

* {{Authority control Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Japan Nissan Manufacturing companies based in Nagoya Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of Japan