The Ishikawajima Ne-20 ( ja, 石川島ネ-20) was

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

's first

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

engine. It was developed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in parallel with the nation's first military jet, the

Nakajima Kikka The was Japan's first jet aircraft. It was developed late in World War II and the first prototype had only flown once before the end of the conflict. It was also called . Design and development After the Japanese military attaché in Germany w ...

Design and development

The decision to manufacture this engine came about because of the unsuitability of two earlier powerplants selected for the Kikka, the

Tsu-11 The Ishikawajima Tsu-11 was a motorjet produced in small numbers in Japan in the closing stages of World War II. It was principally designed to propel the Japanese Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka flying bomb, a kamikaze weapon. Design and development The ...

and the Ne-12. The Ne-20 was made possible by

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 surrender ...

engineer

Eichi Iwaya Eiichi (written: 暎一, 栄一, 英一, 詠一 or 映一) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese computer scientist *Eiichi Itai (born 1951), Japanese golfer *, Japanese sumo ...

obtaining photographs and a single cut-away drawing of the German

BMW 003 The BMW 003 (full RLM designation 109-003) is an early axial turbojet engine produced by BMW AG in Germany during World War II. The 003 and the Junkers Jumo 004 were the only German turbojet engines to reach production during World War II. ...

engine. Only a small number of these engines, perhaps fifty, were produced before the end of the war. Two of them were used to power the Kikka on its only flight on August 7, 1945. Only a few of the engines under construction survived. It was also planned to use the engine to power a version of the

Ohka The Yokosuka MXY-7 was a purpose-built, rocket-powered human-guided ''kamikaze'' attack aircraft employed by Japan against Allied ships towards the end of the Pacific War during World War II. Although extremely fast, the very short range of t ...

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

weapon, but this was not implemented before the end of the war.

Variants

;Ne-20:Standard production engines ;Ne-20-Kai: Up-rated version

Engines on display

Three Ne-20s have been preserved to the present day, one at Ishikawajima-Harima's internal company museum in

Tanashi was a Cities of Japan, city located in the western portion of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Tanashi means the land without rice. Because of the area's elevation relative to the Tamagawa River, traditional irrigation and rice farming was imposs ...

, and two at the Smithsonian's

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

Design and development

Variants

Engines on display

Specifications (Ne-20)

See also

References

Bibliography

External links