Subaru engine history
Alex & Agata
I've been reading rec.autos.subaru and someone recently asked, "Why are
Subaru's so slow? Is it a side effect of their reliability?"
Now I seem to recall that the flat 4 engine was originally developed to
power a postwar Nakajima - or maybe Fuji by then - light plane that
didn't work out. So they put it in a car and and presto, 40 years later
you have a large supply of cheap aircraft derived powerplants to fool
around with. If so that would make any reliability/peak power tradeoffs
completely understandable.
Are my recollections accurate? Are there any of the original planes
still flying with their pre-automotive boxer engines? Is this the right
group to ask this in?
Alex Frakt
Clyde Smith-Stubbs
On Sat, 18 Jan 1997 03:17:05 -0600, Alex & Agata <fr...@pobox.com>
wrote:
>Now I seem to recall that the flat 4 engine was originally developed to
>power a postwar Nakajima - or maybe Fuji by then - light plane that
>didn't work out. So they put it in a car and and presto, 40 years later
>you have a large supply of cheap aircraft derived powerplants to fool
>around with.
>
>Are my recollections accurate? Are there any of the original planes
>still flying with their pre-automotive boxer engines? Is this the right
>group to ask this in?
Your recollections are close: here's a nutshell history from Fuji:
1917 The late Chikuhei Nakajima established the Aircraft Research
Laboratory in Ota, Gunma.
1931 The Laboratory was reorganized into Nakajima Aircraft Co, Ltd.
1945 Nakajima Aircraft was renamed Fuji Sangyo Co., Ltd., and
resumed production of industrial use products.
1950 Fuji Sangyo was spolit up into 12 independent companies.
1953 Five of the major independent companies established Fuji Heavy
Industries Ltd.
1958 SUBARU 360 was announced as the first entry of the Fuji to
4-wheel vehicle market.
For a picture and details of the Subaru 360, see
http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/Tam/Car/Subaru/ - it was a
rear-engined car - the engine was a 2 cylinder horizontally opposed
air cooled engine based on Nakajima's aircraft engine technology.
So far as I am aware, all the Nakajima engines were radials; in 1953
Fuji began manufacturing Cessna L-19 Bird Dogs under licence, whether
they built the engines I don't know, but there is nothing I can find
to indicate that Nakajima or Fuji ever designed a flat-four aircraft
engine. In 1965 Fuji bult the FA-200 4 seat light aircraft, and in
1971 commenced work on the FA-300 twin, which became the Rockwell
Commander, but both these used American engines.