While scouting the web for info on the Nakajima Ha-5/41/109 engines (see other thread and help!
), I stubled on this picture that left me a bit perplexed.
This engine is at the Pima Air Museum. It's being recognized as of Japanese origin; sign says: "Nakajima Homare NK9K-S (Homare 22)"
Look at the picture:
A picture of worse quality can be seen also on the museum site: Pima Air Museum - Nakajima Homare 22
What's wrong you say? I doesn't look like a Homare at all! This is how a Nakajima Homare looks:
Note the different pushrods layout. Nakajima engines usually employed two separate radial cams for driving the valves of the front and the rear cylinder banks. Mitsubishi engines, on the other side, tended to use only one at the front. The mystery engine also has an integral cooling fan in the nose, something that I cannot quite place on any Japanese aircraft using the Homare engine.
Could the museum curators possibly make such a mistake? Is the 18 cylinder engine instead a Mitusbishi Ha-104 (Army Type 4) used on a Ki-67 bomber?
This engine is at the Pima Air Museum. It's being recognized as of Japanese origin; sign says: "Nakajima Homare NK9K-S (Homare 22)"
Look at the picture:
A picture of worse quality can be seen also on the museum site: Pima Air Museum - Nakajima Homare 22
What's wrong you say? I doesn't look like a Homare at all! This is how a Nakajima Homare looks:
Note the different pushrods layout. Nakajima engines usually employed two separate radial cams for driving the valves of the front and the rear cylinder banks. Mitsubishi engines, on the other side, tended to use only one at the front. The mystery engine also has an integral cooling fan in the nose, something that I cannot quite place on any Japanese aircraft using the Homare engine.
Could the museum curators possibly make such a mistake? Is the 18 cylinder engine instead a Mitusbishi Ha-104 (Army Type 4) used on a Ki-67 bomber?