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Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp

1925 9-cylinder radial piston engine family by Pratt & Whitney

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ1852043 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp is an aircraft engine of the reciprocating type that was widely used in American aircraft from the 1920s onward. It was the Pratt & Whitney aircraft company's first engine, and the first of the famed Wasp series. It was a single-row, nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial design, and displaced 1,344 cubic inches (22 L); bore and stroke were both 5.75 in (146 mm). A total of 34,966 engines were produced.

As well as numerous types of fixed-wing aircraft, it was used to power helicopters, the Agusta-Bell AB.102 and the Sikorsky H-19, and a class of airship, the K-class blimp.

In 2016, it received designation as a Historic Engineering Landmark from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Variants

Note: R for Radial and 1340 for 1340 cubic inch displacement.

Applications

Engines on display

There are a Wasp A and three Wasp C's on display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

Specifications (R-1340-S1H1-G)

Data from Jane's.

General characteristics

Type: Nine-cylinder single-row supercharged air-cooled radial engine

Bore: 5.75 in (146 mm)

Stroke: 5.75 in (146 mm)

Displacement: 1,344 cu in (22.02 L)

Length: 47.7 in (1,210 mm)

Diameter: 51.75 in (1,314 mm)

Dry weight: 930 lb (420 kg)

Components

Valvetrain: Two overhead valves per cylinder

Supercharger: Single-speed centrifugal type supercharger, 1:10 step-up

Fuel system: Two-barrel Stromberg carburetor

Fuel type: 91 octane rating gasoline

Cooling system: Air-cooled

Reduction gear: 3:2

Performance

Power output: 600 hp (450 kW) at 2,250 rpm at 6,200 ft (1,900 m)

Specific power: 0.45 hp/cu in (20.5 kW/L)

Compression ratio: 6:1

Power-to-weight ratio: 0.65 hp/lb (1.07 kW/kg)

See also

Pratt & Whitney Wasp series

Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet

Related development

Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior

Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior

Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp

Related lists

List of aircraft engines

References

Notes

Bibliography

Bridgman, Leonard.

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The public source identifies “Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp” as 1925 9-cylinder radial piston engine family by Pratt & Whitney. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pratt, Whitney and R-1340.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1340, 2016, 1690, 1535—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Pratt, Whitney and R-1340 providing the first useful test.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.