Nationality Japanese Education University of Tokyo | Name Ryoichi Nakagawa | |
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Born 27 April 1913 ( 1913-04-27 ) Tokyo, Japan Significant design Nakajima Homare engine (Ha-45) Died July 30, 1998, Tokyo, Japan Books From Aircraft to Automobiles and Automotive Electronics: Remembrances of an Internal Combustion Engineer | ||
Engineering discipline Mechanical Engineering Significant advance Nakajima Sakae engine | ||
Ryoichi Nakagawa (中川 良一, Nakagawa Ryōichi, 1913–1998) was a Japanese aircraft/automotive engineer. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1936 and joined Nakajima Aircraft Company in the same year.
Career
He improved Nakajima Sakae engine for Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Nakajima Ki-43 and other planes. He was the chief designer of Nakajima Homare engine for Nakajima Ki-84, Nakajima C6N, Kawanishi N1K and others.
After the World War II, Nakajima Aircraft Company was disbanded and was banned to produce aircraft by the GHQ. It was divided into 12 companies. Two of them were Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) and Fuji Precision Industries (Prince Motors). Nakagawa was appointed the senior engineering manager of Prince and led its engineers. He supervised all the Prince vehicles projects including Skyline, Gloria, R380, S390P-1 Royal limousine and others.
After the merger of Prince and Nissan in August 1966, he was promoted to the senior executive director of Nissan in 1969.
Later he became the chairman of the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. (JSAE). He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1990.
He died on July 30, 1998.