Jiro Tanaka

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Jiro Tanaka
田中 次郎
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Died2017 (aged 100)
NationalityJapanese
EducationTokyo Institute of Technology
OccupationEngineer
Engineering career
DisciplineMechanical engineering
ProjectsVarious Prince vehicles and Nissan vehicles
Significant designTachikawa Ki-74
AwardsJapan Automotive Hall of Fame (2008)

Jiro Tanaka (田中 次郎, Tanaka Jirō, 16 January 1917 – 2017) was a Japanese aircraft and automotive engineer.

Career

Tanaka (rightmost squatting), Takuya Himura (second from right behind the car) and all the design department employees of Tokyo Electric Car Company with their first vehicle Tama EOT-47 electric truck in 1947.
pressurized cabin
to Ki-74.

After the end of World War II, Tanaka repaired existing Tachikawa Ki-77 and Ki-74 aircraft for submission to the GHQ.

On 30 June 1947,[1] Tanaka joined the Tokyo Electric Car Company after it became independent from the Tachikawa Aircraft; it later changed its name to "Tama Electric Car Company" on 30 November 1949.[1][2]

Tanaka (right) and his Tama colleagues testing the prototype of their first gasoline-engine vehicle Tama (Prince) Truck AFTF in Hakone, late 1951 or early 1952. This car had not been named "Prince" yet.

After the Korean War broke out, the price of batteries rose significantly, while the price of gasoline fell. For this reason, Tama Electric Car started building gasoline-engine vehicles. As the company was essentially still an aircraft body manufacturer, they had to acquire automobile engines from outside. They bought engines from Fuji Precision Industries (one of the successors of the disbanded Nakajima Aircraft Company). Tama Electric Car changed its name to "Tama Motor Company" on November 26, 1951.[1] In 1952, a new sedan was launched that was named "Prince," so on November 27, 1952, the company again changed its name, this time to the "Prince Motor Company."[1] Tanaka, as Design Department Manager, supervised the development of all Prince vehicles such as the

Nissan Diesel. In 1985, Tanaka retired from Nissan Diesel but remained an adviser to the company. He was inducted into the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame in 2008 along with Yutaka Katayama
, also known as "Mr. K".

Death

Jiro Tanaka died in 2017, at the age of 100.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 4-87687-251-1
  2. ^ "Tama Electric Vehicle E4S-47 (JSAE Official Website)". Archived from the original on 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2013-08-04.
  3. ^ "文化の発展に貢献した歴史に残すべきクルマは？…日本自動車殿堂が歴史遺産車を発表". Car Care Plus (in Japanese). 2017-11-17. Retrieved 2023-07-22.

Sources

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