The Nakajima Homare (誉, "praise" or, more usually, "honour") was an air-cooled twin-row 18 cylinder radial Japanese aircraft engine manufactured during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Producing almost 2,000 horsepower, it was used widely by both the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

and the Imperial Japanese Navy. Given the Navy service designation NK9, the "Homare" was also given the company designation NBA, Army experimental designation Ha-45 (ハ45) or, Army long designation Nakajima Army Type 4 1,900 hp Air-Cooled Radial and, (coincidentally) unified designation code of Ha-45.

Design and development

Development of the Homare started in 1940, and certification was completed in 1941. It succeeded Nakajima's previous 14 cylinder Sakae (Ha-25) engine, which had its own forward seven cylinders staggered from the rear seven for efficient cooling. The design was exceptionally compact, with an external diameter of 118 cm, a mere 3 cm larger than the Sakae. With a bore and stroke of 130 mm x 150 mm, it was classified as a short-stroke engine. It was designed to output around 1800 hp (1340 kW), or 100 hp (75 kW) per cylinder. However, the tight design of the engine made it difficult to maintain quality in manufacturing, and unreliability in the field was a significant problem; actual output of early models at altitude was in the range of 1300 hp (970 kW), far below the designed capability. Later models had improved performance, and it became one of the predominant powerplants of Japanese military aircraft in the latter part of the war. A total of 9089 were produced.

Variants

* Homare 11 - 1,650 hp (1,230 kW), 1,820 hp (1,357 kW), 1,900 hp (1,417 kW) * Homare 12 - 1,825 hp (1,361 kW) * Homare 21 - 1,990 hp (1,460 kW) * Homare 23 - 2,000 hp (1,491 kW) * Homare 25 - 2,000 hp (1,491 kW) * Homare 42 - 2,200 hp (1,640 kW)

Applications

* Aichi B7A * Kawanishi N1K-J * Mitsubishi A7M * Nakajima C6N * Nakajima G8N * Nakajima J5N * Nakajima Ki-84 * Yokosuka D4Y5 * Yokosuka P1Y1

Specifications (Ha-45-21)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * ''Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II''. London. Studio Editions Ltd, 1998. * {{Imperial Japanese Navy aero engines Aircraft air-cooled radial piston engines 1940s aircraft piston engines Nakajima aircraft engines