Mitsubishi Kasei


The Mitsubishi Kasei was a two-row, 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and used in a variety of World War II Japanese aircraft, such as Mitsubishi J2M and Mitsubishi G4M. The Mitsubishi model designation for this engine was A10 while it was an experimental project, in service it was known as the MK4, and known as the Ha101 & Ha111 by the Army and Kasei by the Navy. According to unified designation code it was Ha-32 of the variants from 11 to 27.

Design and development

Although originally ordered by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Kasei was based on the earlier Mitsubishi Shinten engine, itself based originally on the Mitsubishi Kinsei. Produced in a wide variety of models, the Kasei began with a rated power of, with a gradual evolution to in later wartime versions. Three variants were developed for the Japanese Navy starting in 1939. It was also later adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army as the Ha-101 engine. Unified code was Ha-32.
Physically, the engine had a rather large diameter compared to the of the Nakajima Homare engine. Its size and weight meant it was a challenging engine to use on single engine fighters.

Variants